A Fangirl In The Hunger Games!
by Akela Victoire
Summary: Violette Gardner is a major (obnoxious) Hunger Games fangirl. She admires Katniss, gushes over the sexiness of Peeta and Gale, buys lots of merchandise and writes lots of fanfiction. However when she finds herself as a Tribute in the 73rd Games, how does a fangirl survive the very thing she loves the most?
1. Chapter 1

I've been lurking for a while in this fandom so I decided to finally give it a try. This story is… rather different from the usual SYOT fic- whether or not that's a good thing is for you to decide…

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Hunger Games, blah, blah, blah...

* * *

"Hey guys! I hope you enjoy my latest Hunger Games fanfiction! Yeah, the intro chapter to the _**2978**__**th **__**Hunger Games**_ is finally up over on fanfiction! It's a SYOT too- just like most of the stories in that fandom (unique, I know!)- so make sure to go come up with some awesome tributes as I kill them off for our entertainment!"

"I'm also so excited to go see the Hunger Games movie! It's gonna be _great!_ I'll give you a review the VCC way as soon as I get back! If the trailers are any indication, it's gonna be totally squeal worthy and a great belated birthday treat to myself! Until next time, I'm out!"

My fingers raced across the keyboard in excitement, finishing up my latest Journal post on deviantArt. Perfect.

I was a fairly well-known Hunger Games fan artist on there and although I had been writing fanfiction for a long time, I had only started writing Hunger Games fanfiction about a few weeks ago. Took me long enough!

Yep, VioletCanadaChick, known as Violette Gardner in real life is a really big fan of the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Possibly the biggest fan in Montreal. No, Canada. Nope, _the world!_

Some people call me obsessed, but to tell the truth, I really don't give a shit.

Like my pesky older brother Louis. I threw his lame "collectible" Star Wars figurines in the trash compactor last month after he threw my books into the pool saying I needed an intervention. He's still not talking to me. Apparently what I did was unforgiveable…

I mean, _who cares_ if my walls are covered floor to ceiling in movie posters and their eyes stare at me all the time when I'm in here? I mean, Katniss is so brave and strong; Rue and Prim are adorable, Peeta and Gale are major hotties…

_Especially _Gale.

I love him with the passion of a thousand burning suns and I'll kill anyone who says otherwise.

Why couldn't Katniss have chosen him? No offense, Peeta. I think you're really hot and all, but I ship _Everthorne._ Besides, Katpee/Peeniss is too weird a couple name…

Whatever. I've got a movie to go get ready and see.

I flung open my totally fabulous closet and flicked through the various fashionable choices for every occasion.

After a few minutes, I pulled out a cute multi-layered white jeans miniskirt with a dark blue sash running through where the belt would be, a pink sleeveless halter top with white heart outlines printed all over it and shimmery pink flats with little bows on the big toes.

A cute outfit for a cute, no,_ beautiful_ girl like me, just like the flower I was named after. Perfectly tanned skin, gorgeous dark blue eyes, silky, smooth light brown mid-back length hair held back by a twisted pink headband…

No wonder I had all the boys at school chasing after me.

Of course none but Gale would be worthy…

"Violette! _Tes amies sont ici!_ Hurry up and get down to them!"

_Okay, okay, mum! I'm coming!_ Jeez, what a pest.

"Violette, you look gorgeous!" My best friends squealed when they saw me.

Of course. I always look gorgeous.

"Thank you! So do you!" I squealed back.

_Obviously. _

I wouldn't be seen with anyone that had an appearance deficit disorder aka was an ugly little fu…

"Let's go, shall we?" Ginger, a name which quite suited her because of her mane of gorgeous red hair, fished out her car keys. All our friends call her Foxface because she really does look like her, but with hazel eyes.

"TO THE HUNGER GAMES!" We cheered as we ran out to the car.

* * *

"That was awesome!" Ginger squealed as we walked through the mall after the movie.

"I know…" Blonde-haired, light-blue eyed Melissa squealed. "I cried so hard when Rue died though. Why'd she have to die?!" She wailed.

"Because Katniss is the protagonist. Of _course _she had to win!" Gina, being the smartass Asian person of our group answered.

"Yeah. Besides, we would have cried even more if Katniss died, wouldn't we?" I said.

They all made noises of agreement.

"Guys, I'm really feeling the need for some food right now. For some reason, I _really_ want some pizza…" Ginger moaned.

"Fatty. I want some Chinese grub." Gina said.

"Aren't you of _Japanese_ descent?" Melissa raised an eyebrow.

"Doesn't mean I can't eat Chinese food, stupid…"

"Okay girls. We don't want a bloodbath in the mall, do we? I have an idea. Why don't we just get the foods we want and meet back here to go back to my house?"

"Great idea, Violette! You're like, so smart!" Melissa smiled.

"Okay, you. Stop proving your stereotype and let's get moving…" Gina dragged Melissa off while Ginger went in search of pizza and I looked for whatever looked good.

Soon enough, I came to a branch of the French café that my mother is so fond of since she claims it reminds her of her native France. _Papillion. _

It must be new. I've certainly never seen it here before…

What catches my eye is a woman with wavy hair that's a darker shade of red than Ginger's, pulled into a ponytail by a black bow reading… a Hunger Games book, though it's the European French translation. She has good taste, so I head towards the café, ordering some food to go, including some éclairs for my mum.

I'm thoughtful, I know.

"You like ze Hunger Games series, _oui?_" She looks at me with brown eyes, speaking with an accent similar to my mother's as I move to pass her table.

"_Oui. _Very much." I nodded. Mum and Dad always told me not to talk to strangers, but if this stranger likes Hunger Games, she can't be so bad, now can she?

"You just came from seeing ze movie? I am about to go to ze next showing." She flashes her ticket.

"Yeah, I saw it with some friends of mine. It was fantastic!" I cheered.

The woman laughed. "I wonder sometimes how long I would last een zese Games. I think I could win zem. What about you?"

"I don't think I could- and if I did, I'd probably come out of it like Annie…" I chuckled.

"Maybe one day you will really be able to experience somesing like it. Zey will build stimulators or somesing…"

That would be pretty cool…

I checked my watch.

"Oh! I have to meet my friends. Enjoy the movie!" I walked off, smiling.

Little did I know that that was no ordinary woman I had come across…

After I had gone, a petite girl with thick black hair pulled into a ponytail, blue-green eyes and a major acne problem walked over to her.

"Dominique, zat ees ze 'orrible girl who 'as been teasing me at school..."

"Is zat so, Claudette?" The woman raised an eyebrow.

"Oui. Violette Gardener. She feels she ees so great, but she ees not! She ees 'orrible! I don't know 'ow she even 'as _les amies!_"

"Hmm…" Dominique glanced down at the book and glanced at my quickly disappearing figure.

"Claudette, how would you like to make sure _she never bothers you again?_" Dominique stood up.

Claudette followed her gaze down to the book and then looked her in the eye, seeing something harden in there.

"_Oui._ I will do it." Claudette's face hardened as well.

"Good. Come now, we will go see ze movie. Afterwards, you will need practice and we need to collect ze right ingredients. We will see how much zis Violette likes _le Hunger Games _after we're done with her…"

* * *

Monday afternoon, I strode into cheerleading practice with Ginger, Melissa and Gina, commanding the attention of everyone else there.

Claudette, our water girl stood on the side-lines watching us intently. She wishes she could be one of us. Beautiful. Admired.

Not with that ugly mug she wouldn't…

After several vigorous routines choreographed to the latest music, the coach dismissed us.

"Hey Violette! Do you want a ride home?" Ginger called out.

"No thanks, Ginger. I'll be running a few errands of my own before I go!"

"Okay then. I'll see you tomorrow!" She said, waving.

I waved back cheerfully.

As I walked down the street to go to a nearby store to get some Hunger Games posters I still lacked, I heard footsteps behind me.

When I turned to look, I saw Claudette standing there, looking as ugly as she always did.

"What is it, _Claudette?_ I have to time for people like you." I spat.

"Oh I know you don't care for people like me. You like to make my life a living hell. Not anymore, _Violette._ Not anymore." She said bitterly.

I laughed. "Oh please. What can you do to me?"

"You like Hunger Games so much, _oui?_ How would you like to experience it for yourself?!" Claudette began to glow dark purple.

"What the…" My eyes widened and I took off into a nearby park. I knew she was a freak but never that much!

I turned into a clearing of trees, but Claudette was already there, waiting for me.

"What the… b-but _how?_" I stammered.

"Tricks zat Dominique taught me. You know, ze lady reading le Hunger Games book in ze mall on Saturday?" Claudette told me the entire story and I felt myself quavering.

This is not how I pictured spending any evening in Montreal…

"You like le Hunger Games so much? Fine!" She made a copy of my favourite book appear in her hands though I certainly wasn't feeling any joy at the sight this time...

"_Enemies of mine by hook or by crook,_

_**Let them become trapped inside this book!"**_

I tried running away but a combination of gusts of wind and some sort of purple energy pulled me towards her.

My screams were the last thing I heard as I sunk into darkness.

* * *

I sat up in my bed, startled.

"Wow that was some really trippy dream…" I groaned, wiping the sleep from my eyes.

I blinked and looked around the room. This didn't look like my room at all…

It was much… simpler and darker that what I was used to.

The curtains were some sort of grainy looking yellow and the carpets were a darker shade of yellow.

I looked at my sheets. Instead of the lovely pinks, purples and whites, they were a horrid dark brown. Come to think of it, the bed felt harder and smaller as well….

"_Am I high?"_ I wondered, getting out of the strange bed slowly and exploring the room.

I went over to the dresser with an oval-shaped mirror hanging above it and sat on the little stool in front of it, inspecting its contents.

"_What… What are these? These aren't the clothes I'm used to at all! They're so… plain!"_ I thought in disgust.

Looking down at my clothes, I was no longer wearing the cute pink baby-doll mini-dress, black leggings and white sandals I had changed back into after cheerleading practice. Instead, I wore a peach coloured nightgown that looked like something my grandma would wear…

I looked at my reflection and ran my fingers through my messy bed-hair, shuddering.

I looked out the window.

It didn't look like Montreal out there at all.

It was still somewhat dark, but I could see that there were large fields covered in all sorts of grains and people dressed rather simply and wearing broad hats that looked like they came from China or something had apparently just finished tending to them, judging by the tools they carried as they left the fields.

Large factory-looking buildings loomed over the far side of the fields from what I could see.

Around me, there were lots of other two-storey houses and though many looked rather old, they still looked sturdy.

Not like me.

I wobbled back to bed.

"_Oh God, oh God, oh God. What did Claudette do to me?!"_ I thought.

I wandered over to the other window, still on unsteady legs.

Through this one, I could see even more grain fields, though I could also see a large building that looked like it had leapt out of an old English town. Workers around it were working on what looked to be some sort of platform, setting up screens and speakers, etc.

"Perhaps if I go back to bed, I will wake up from this dream…" I mumbled to myself, tumbling into the tiny bed.

Minutes later, I heard my mum and dad's voices talking downstairs as they rustled around, probably getting breakfast.

Ah. It was all just a dream…

I opened my eyes.

The room was the same.

Or not.

"_Oh my God…"_ I whispered.

I opened the door to my room and looked out into the hallway.

_Definitely not my hallway._

I treaded around wearily, trying to get a feel for my new "home".

I headed downstairs, hesitant of what I might find.

I found myself in a small hallway and I could hear my parents' voices a bit better so I began to head in that direction.

"Hello…" I said hesitantly as I followed their voices into what appeared to be our kitchen.

"Hello Violette…" The first thing I noticed was that somehow, my mother was no longer speaking with her French accent that sometimes made it hard for even me to understand her English.

I blinked.

"Your brother's about to come in from his shift in the factory. They're ending his shift early so he and the others who work with him can attend the Reaping…"

Wait, _Reaping?_

I must have said it aloud because my father looked at me looking slightly puzzled, but also with a hint of worry.

"Yes, Violette. _Reaping._ Today's Reaping Day for the 73rd Hunger Games, remember?" He said softly.

My mind blanked out for a few seconds…

"This year and the next are your last years of eligibility. I really do hope the odds are in your favour. District 9 hardly does well in the Games…" My mother said in an equally quiet voice.

Wait… I'm in District 9, it's Reaping Day and I'm eligible to participate in the Reapings?

Oh my goodness. This has to be a nightmare, it has to be…

_Has to be…_


	2. Chapter 2

_It isn't._

After I finish the simple, yet filling breakfast, I went up to my room to get ready to go to the… _Reaping_ and try to understand the situation that Claudette had put me in.

I found a long-sleeved dark green dress with a pleated skirt, matching ballet flats and ribbons for my hair which I used to pull my hair into two low ponytails. Apparently in the Panem version of my life, my family was able to afford nice clothes too.

There's _something_ good about this situation at least…

When I looked out the window again, the sun had come out fully and the early birds had begun to head out to the large English-looking building where workers had been setting up screens and speakers earlier.

"_The stage for the Reapings…"_ I said quietly.

"Violette, it's time…" My father called up.

Starting to feel myself shake nervously, I left the room, hoping that even though I didn't want to be in this universe in the first place, that I'd be free to see it again afterwards.

* * *

As my mother and father walked with me, Louis joined us.

"Hey sis! Let's hope the odds are in your favour, huh?" he ruffled my hair and even though I hated when he did that in my own universe, it felt mildly reassuring here…

Nah, I still hate his guts…

But hey, it's Reaping Day. Temporary truce, right?

When we reached the square, more people joined us, talking idly about random things, but I could tell that they were all nervous.

I wasn't. I was pretty sure I would survive this reaping. I mean, surely little _Claudette_ and her bitch of an aunt wouldn't have enough power for that…

Mom, dad and Louis gave me big hugs as I joined the processing line.

Where I received another unpleasant shock.

_Ginger was in front of me…_

Oh my God, that little twerp Claudette brought her here too? If I make it back, I swear she'll have a more brutal death than Cato!

Wait a minute though. Where's Gina and Meli-

"**Finger, please…"**

I held out my finger for the female Peacekeeper at sign-in to prick and winced slightly as she did.

The hand-held scanner read: _Gardener, Violette. 17 y/o._

"Go on ahead, Violette." She waved me in casually- almost as if I wasn't potentially going to my death. What kind, loving and sensitive people these Peacekeepers are…

I joined Ginger in the 17 year old girls' section and took in my surroundings.

All around me, I could see parents hugging their children, siblings hugging siblings and friends hugging friends as the reaping area became full.

Soon enough, we were all assembled and waited as the Mayor- apparently by the name of Orpheus Maplewood came onto the stage, followed by previous victors and…

_Dominique?_

_Dominique_ is the District 9 escort? Granted, she looks remarkably different, but still, I can tell it's her beneath that garish getup that escorts seem to like to wear…

This just keeps getting worse and worse! Now I'll be picked _for sure!_

The mayor runs through the history of Panem (which is actually pretty fascinating in full! I must write about that when… _if_ I get back home…), the uprising, the Treaty of Treason and the beginning of the Hunger Games.

I snap out of my Panem History lesson as Dominique steps up to the microphone.

Her red hair is tied in a series of large loops across her head; she wears a flowing sleeved dark blue dress with puffy shoulders and black under-sleeves, black leggings, dark blue flared ankle boots that looked like something people in futuristic movies would wear and matching gloves with little frills around the wrists.

Her eye shadow, lipstick and even blush are the same colour as the dress…

Ginger and I looked at each other nervously, not daring to speak about what or rather, _who _had brought us here.

"Welcome to the 73rd Annual Hunger Games, everyone! I am Medusa Pearl…"

Who knew she'd use an alias? And one that suited her too…

"…your District Escort! It's time for the drawing! Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be _ever_ in your favour!"

Why do those words sound even worse coming out of "Medusa's" mouth?

Two glass bowls atop shiny marble columns rise up out of the stage on either side of her, filled with all the slips that have all us potential Tributes' names on them.

"Let's see… Ladies first, right?" Medusa/Dominique chuckled.

My heart was practically in my throat as I waited for her to draw the name.

She reached in, drew out the slip, unfolded it and…

"_Violette Gardner!"_

I knew it. I knew it would be me. I hoped it wouldn't be but still…

I heard screams and cries coming from what could only be my mother.

I myself was stunned; after the initial noise of my mother's cries, I went temporarily deaf.

"Where is the lucky lady? Violette, _where are you?_" She calls out, all cheerful-like as if I've just won some sort of wonderful prize.

The girls around me start shoving me out before the Peacekeepers come to look for me. Gee, thanks guys. So much for District unity. Why couldn't you be for me like District 12 is for Katniss?

My legs quiver as I walk up the steps and I feel sure that I will fall and humiliate myself.

As I finally find myself on the stage after what feels like forever, I venture a glance over to the esteemed District Escort, who smiles at me in what might seem like a "friendly" smile to some watching, but to me is a "I shall enjoy your brutal demise" smile.

Then she turns back to the bowls, going over to the boys' one.

"Next, we have the gentlemen." Medusa reaches her gloved claw into the bowl.

"_Graham Fields…" _

A cute little 12 year old boy who looks as if he could be my brother walks up to the stage, looking as if he's struggling not to cry. The camera goes over the other 12 year old tributes and I see another little boy who looks exactly like him.

_His twin brother. _

Looking out into the audience, I spot a little girl, about six or seven years old who has burst into tears as her mother and father hold her close.

_The rest of Graham's family…_

He walks onto the other side of the stage; coming to stand on Medusa's other side.

"I present to you District 9's Tributes for the 73rd Hunger Games: Violette Gardner and Graham Fields!"

The audience claps, although certainly not like how they would clap if I were up there singing and dancing for them…

With one final glance at the outside world as Panem's anthem finishes, we are ushered into the Justice Building by the Peacekeepers, likely never to see it again.

* * *

"Oh, my little baby!" My mother weeps as she wraps me in a bone-crushing hug

"Violette, you've got to go win this thing, for us all!" Louis said, in a strained voice.

Wow. He really does care. I wonder if he does back home as well…

_No, no…_ I shook my head. I can't think about home. I have to think about surviving here and now…

I felt the tears start forming in my own eyes and try to wipe them, but my father wipes them for me.

"Violette, you will always be my precious little girl. I want you to know that I love you very much, understand?" He put his hands on my shoulders.

I nod tearfully.

"Here's your District token, so you'll always be reminded of us at weak spots in the Games, okay? It will give you strength." My father fished a small box out of his pocket and opened it.

Inside, there was a small leather necklace with a little wooden pendant shaped like a flower.

Shaped like a Violet.

They all come in for another hug.

"Be careful at the Cornucopia, okay? We know that's where the most Tributes are killed at one time." Dad said.

"It's _kill or be killed in_ there, Sis. Remember that if you hesitate in a fight, it'll be the last thing you ever do!" Louis.

"Remember that we all love you, okay? Don't just fight for us, fight for District 9!" My mother said through her tears as Peacekeepers come in to announce their time is up.

I started to waver even more then, realising that that was the last time I'd ever see them.

I may be a lot of things, but I'm _not_ a Hunger Games winner.

Sure I can do karate, swim, cheerlead, dance and I developed somewhat of an obsession with archery when I was ten, but that's not good enough to win against the likes of Careers who've been training for brutality like this all their lives!

The door opened again and in came Ginger, who cried even more than I did.

"Win this for us! Please! Show _Medusa_ and that awful Capitol of hers what's what!" Ginger gave a half-hearted cheer.

"When I woke up this morning and realised what had happened, it was both a dream and a nightmare come true. Please don't let it be a nightmare even more! I love you, Violette! You're like my best friend in the whole world! We've known each other all our lives! Don't let it end now!" She wailed.

We hugged for a while and then, all too soon, it was her time to leave as well.

* * *

The car that I'm riding in to the train station looks like one of those little retro cars from the fifties or sixties on the outside, but isn't.

The seats are made of a lovely, comfortable material I cannot identify and what I can see from the backseat looks pretty high-tech as the driver fiddles around with it.

In my car besides the driver and myself are Graham and the male Mentor, Dagan Granum.

_Medusa's_ in the car behind us with the female Mentor, Ceres Oakley.

It only takes about fifteen minutes for us to arrive and by then, Graham and I have wiped away all our tears, but you can still see that we've been crying as our eyes are still red.

The flashes of the cameras all around us as we step from the cars are nearly blinding.

Sheesh. I thought the lights at the local fashion shows that my friends and I liked to go to back in Montreal were bright. But these cameras do not have just flashes. They have miniature suns in there…

Soon the doors of the train are closed and we are on our way to our doom.

Ceres comes over to me, smiling encouragingly as we walk down the corridors.

She seems like a nice sort. Dark brown hair in curly ringlets pulled up in a short ponytail, greenish-grey eyes that have not dimmed despite what she must have been through over the past few years. She's also slightly taller than I am and looks to be perhaps in her early forties.

"Here are your quarters, Violette. Everything in here is for you to use. Lunch will be ready in about two hours or so." She smiles again and turns away to go to her own quarters.

Once I shut the doors behind me, I took in the compartment, which resembles a room from an ultra-exclusive, ultra expensive, five-star hotel, like something Celine Dion would stay in.

After taking a bath in the biggest hot tub I've ever seen and getting dressed in a simple puffy-sleeved white blouse and pink floaty skirt, I flopped into the huge bed and stared at the ceiling.

"_What have I done to deserve this?"_ I wondered. _"Surely I was never that bad, right? Claudette and her bitch aunt are effing crazy!"_

Just as I was swearing to strangle the two bitches when… err… _if _I got back home, an Avox came in to take me to lunch.

Holy. Effing. Chr-

_Melissa?_ Melissa, is that seriously you?

A flicker of recognition passes through us and I recognise that it _is_ indeed Melissa.

Isn't it ironic that the most talkative of us all is sentenced to a lifetime of no talking?

I mean, having your tongue cut out is just… ew…

I shuddered.

She gestured for me to follow her and I do, wondering what other surprises are in store for me.

* * *

Son of a goddamn bitch.

Gina's an Avox too.

There she is in that Avox's uniform, looking downcast as she poured red wine into Medusa's upheld crystal goblet, the latter of whom is smirking at her.

When Gina glances up and we lock eyes, she almost drops the bottle she's holding.

"Oh look, here's our female Tribute now!" Medusa exclaimed cheerfully.

Stupid cunt.

I'm getting rather foul-mouthed today aren't I?

I took my seat between Ceres and Graham, looking across my male counterpart to get a good luck at his mentor.

Dagan looks to be in his mid-fifties or so, with salt and pepper hair and dark blue eyes. Unlike Ceres, the toll of being in the Hunger Games and watching all subsequent Tributes except her die seems to have taken its toll. His eyes are dull; almost lifeless and his voice sounds the same as he asks Melissa to bring him some wine too. Not to mention the wrinkles starting to appear…

Lunch soon starts and I dig in. Despite everything, I somehow still have an appetite. I'll need to eat as much and as well as I can before I face the malnutrition of the Arena…

How will I survive in there? Usually when I feel stressed, I reach for a Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar, but I doubt they will have those in those little packs they have at the Cornucopia…

"Now that that's over with, I think we should go watch the recaps. It's tradition!" Medusa giggles as she leads the way over to that compartment.

How I _hate_ the sound of laughter…

Graham and I are fully attentive to the television-projection thingie on the wall.

The Careers of District 1 are both rather good-looking. Beautiful, but deadly I suppose…

The girl from District 2 is pretty good-looking as well and flicks around her curly black hair with a determined glint in her eyes. I'll have to watch her.

A stocky blonde boy from District 4 strides forward.

A boy with dark-brown messy hair from District 7 who looks like a bear. Probably could kill with one squeeze too…

The girl from District 8 is thirteen and looks like she's having a nervous breakdown, crying and screaming as she's practically dragged up to the stage.

District 9's Reapings… I look better than I felt at the time… Graham looks worse than I do though- though not as bad as District 8's girl…

The girl from District 11- wow, she's _tall… _She looks completely stoic as she walks up to the stage, as if resigned to her fate.

District 12… I strain to see if I can see… Wait, is that Katniss in there? Nah, that's not her.

Two dark-haired scrawny-looking kids shuffle forward. Forgettable. No wonder District 12 loses all the time. They don't stand a chance…

"_Though I really suppose I don't stand much of chance either…"_ I thought as I left the room.


	3. Chapter 3

"Maman, where are we going?"

A little brown haired-blue eyed girl in a pink dress with white frills and matching bows looked in the mirror as the blonde woman appeared behind her with the same eyes the little girl had.

"Well, _ma petit cherie_, since today is your birthday, it is a very special day. I have a very special surprise arranged for you." The woman smiled.

"But, _Maman…_" The little girl whined.

"Shh, Violette." She puts a finger on the girl's lips. "You will love eet, I promise. You just have to wait."

"I _hate _waiting!" Little Girl pouted.

The mother chuckled and kissed the girl's forehead. "Oh Violette. Some theengs are worth waiting for, just like zis one will be…"

* * *

"So, Violette. What _can _you do?"

"Huh, what?" I was startled out of my daydreams of more pleasant times at breakfast by the sound of Ceres' voice.

"I asked you _what can you do_ Violette. Do you have any special talents? Anything at all? Daydreaming doesn't count." She chuckled.

"If daydreaming counted, I would have already won the Games, wouldn't I?" I smiled.

"Yes, I suppose you would. But in all seriousness, what _can_ you do? Are you handy with a scythe or a cutlass? Agile? Can you take or give hits?" She counts them off on her fingers as she says them.

I pause in between cutting up my sausages and pancakes, lifting a forkful to my mouth before answering.

"Well, I am fairly flexible and quick, so I guess I'd be able to evade other Tributes fast, dodge blows and weapons alright. But if they somehow got hold of me and pressed a sword to my throat, I'd be toast. I don't know if I have that much strength to fight off a big, strong Career…" I shudder at the thought, taking a sip of peppermint tea to calm myself down.

Yeah, I doubt karate would help much in this case. I may have done karate, but can even a black belt help a girl my size fight off someone twice my size with a huge-ass pointy thing in one hand who wants to run it straight through me?

"Flexible. Quick. Hmm. That's good... How could we work that into a good Training score and attract sponsors for you though?" Ceres wondered aloud.

_Yeah. Even though Medusa can't seal the deal, I highly doubt she'd help you in your efforts to get me some sponsors…_

"We also have to consider conditions in the Arena itself. Suppose it's nearly all water, like it was a few years ago? You might be fast on land, but are you any good in the water?"

_Of course I am!_ I thought. _I won lots of swimming prizes from the time I was three years old! I can swim an Olympic-sized swimming pool several times over! Might as well call me Ariel!_

But I doubt Ceres would know who Ariel is so I gage the answer I give her. "I suppose I wouldn't drown. I mean, my bathtub is nowhere near as big as the ocean, but still…" I shrugged.

"Good, good…" Ceres takes a sip of orange juice and I of milk before the door slides open and our male counterparts enter.

"Morning, folks…" Dagan drones as he comes in and helps himself to the buffet, Graham close behind him.

"Yeah, _morning…_" Ceres glances over at them. "We'll be at the Capitol in another two hours. When you get there, make sure to smile and look pretty for the cameras. Pretty Tributes usually get more sponsors."

"Not always…" Dagan mutters.

"It certainly helped with Odair in the 65th Games…" Ceres rolled her eyes.

I bit my tongue to hold back a squeal. _Odair, as in __**Finnick Odair**__ of District 4? The sexiest victor ever, and the youngest one too, having won at the age of fourteen?! I wonder if I'll get a glimpse of him at the Tribute Parade!_

"Lucky bastard he was. It's like that arena was specially designed just for him. And that fancy trident they sent him near the end of the games? He had the whole damn Capitol under his spell…" Dagan muttered, stabbing at his ham slices.

"Well, those Games are over and done with, Dag. We're here and now. We have to focus on getting Violette or Graham through this one…" Ceres twirls her spoon in the porridge.

_Violette __**or **__Graham? _

Knowing Dominique, it's likely to be neither of us…

"Anyway, as I was saying before these_ lovely_ gentlemen interrupted us…" Ceres glares at them for a few seconds and turns back to me.

"We'll be at the Capitol soon. When we roll into their train station, there will be even more cameras there than back in District 9. This will be the first glimpse of you in person that these Capitol citizens will have. Make sure it counts. First impressions can last quite a while. Keep that in mind, _both of you._" She gazes over at Graham, whose forkful of scrambled eggs has paused halfway into his mouth.

"When you're finished, go scat and make yourself look pretty as best you can for your arrival. From there, you'll be taken to the Remake Centre where you'll meet your stylists and tonight, make your official entrance at the opening ceremonies- where the real important ones aka sponsors will be watching you…" Ceres wipes her hands in a napkin and leaves.

I nodded to myself, yawning and stretching.

Damn, having to get up this early for breakfast…

* * *

Sometime after breakfast, I sat looking in the mirror in the bedroom, fiddling with my token. It really _was_ nicely carved. At home- in my Montreal home that is-, it'd have been gold, silver, diamond or even a combination of those but here, the pendant was made of simple wood.

Yet I loved it.

A knocking sound on the door interrupted my train of thought.

"Yes?"

Melissa and Gina were there.

I blinked.

"Oh, come in, you two. Are we almost in the Capitol?"

They nodded.

Gina reaches for a pen and notebook and sits on the bed writing quickly like she always does in exams, the typical smart Asian…

"_V, what happened with you? How did you get here? Do you know if Ginger is here in Panem?"_

"_Ginger is back in District 9. We were both Reaping candidates, but obviously I was the one picked. As for how I got here, that bitch Claudette attacked me Monday afternoon when I was on the way to get some new movie posters…"_

In the background, Melissa is doing some cleaning, but keeps glancing back at us and the door.

"_I see. I was on my way home from the library that afternoon, but who I guess is Dominique/Medusa got me before I could get home, obviously… Then I woke up, saw my surroundings and realized I couldn't feel my tongue…"_

We both grimaced at that.

All of a sudden, Melissa runs at us and initiates a group hug, which is broken apart quickly as they dash out of the compartment, not wanting to be caught and tortured like Lavina and Dairus were in Mockingjay...

Good thing too as a few minutes later, _Dominique_ shows up, just as I've finished ripping up the written conversation Gina and I had.

"Hello there, Violette. Enjoying the ride?" She asks cheerfully as she shuts the door and waves a hand around the room. I guess it's to block any microphones or cameras hidden in the room or something as she snaps her fingers and resumes the normal appearance she had when I first had the misfortune of meeting her.

"It's kinda nice, but knowing I'm headed to my death kind of ruins the effect, don't you think, _Dominique?_" I spat.

"Nope. Not for moi, it doesn't. In fact, it ees rather fun!" She smirks, resuming her normal accent.

I just want to slap the smile right off the bitch's face. I can feel my fingers twitching, eager to wrap them around her neck…

"You were a fan of ze Hunger Games series so I thought eet a fitting, _ironique _way that your demise would be in somesing you loved so much!" She chuckled.

"Do you think I really deserve this?!" I exclaimed.

"As a matter of fact, _oui!_ You hav' made Claudette's life a leeving 'ell since she came to Canada avec moi!"

"But to organize my death like this? Why not just murder me like a normal person? In fact, why kill me at all? Doesn't this seem like disproportionate retribution to you?"

"For one thing, zey might find your body. Sending you here makes eet look like you just mysteriously vanished. They need never know le truth." She smiled. "And two, like I said before, I appreciate ze irony in zis situation. You are a Hunger Games fangirl! Why don't you enjoy eet?" She chuckled before resuming her Capitol alter ego as the train began to slow down.

"Oh, Violette. It seems like we have arrived in the Capitol! You will absolutely love it here, darling!" She skips off, giddy with laughter and me imaging roasting her like chestnuts over an open fire and Jack Frost nipping at her nose with a scissors made of ice.

* * *

My prep team has a pretty easy time of fixing me up to meet my stylist.

I mean, I'm pretty gorgeous as it is already. What more do they need to do? My legs, arms and underarms aren't hairy; they're lovely and smooth. As for the hair on my head, it's not tangled, knotty nor has some other fault.

Still, they insist on sitting me down into a hairstyling station and doing my hair.

At least they haven't given me a hairstyle like the ones they have…

My hair been liberally gelled and pulled up into separate mini braids which are all held together at the top of my head by a bronze clip giving the impression that my hair is some sort of light brown fountain.

My nails are painted bronze with brown tips and I get matching makeup. Overall, I don't look all that bad for now…

Now it's time to meet my stylist. Hopefully this guy is creative enough to come up with a good costume that represents grain, like Cinna did (or I guess _will do_) with coal.

I mean, _grain? _Seriously? Of all the Districts to be put in, Dominique puts me in District 9: the Grain District. No one ever talks about District 9! They died in the Bloodbaths of both the 74th and 75th Hunger Games, never played an important part in the Second Rebellion and it's not like they even produce something that people really want, unless they adore oatmeal, wheat germ or something…

No seriously, how do you represent _grain_ in a costume? He'd better not put me in a sack or something…

Oh wait- I come out of yet another daydream as a woman walks into the room.

Oh, good grief. At least she's going to help me represent District 9 and not the Capitol…

Her skin is paler than Snow White's and her hair is emerald green, reaching to her butt even though it's pulled up into _five_ high ponytails with little purple bows. Her eyelashes are the same shade of green and look like miniature paper fans attached to her eyelids. Do not get me started on the makeup and the outfit she's wearing. Or even the stencilled pattern all over her body…

"Hey there, Violette! That's a pretty name! I'm Desdemona, your stylist." She comes trotting up to me on heels a height that even I wouldn't risk wearing. Might as well just be wearing stilts…

"The prep team did well with you." She looks me over and I find myself wondering if she plays for the same team as Rosie O'Donnell or Jane Lynch…

"Why don't you throw on your robe and we'll go talk?" She smiles, showing teeth that could belong to a vampire. At least she doesn't sparkle…

I know you'd expect a girl like me to like Twilight, but let's not go there. Sure the actors are hot, but the glittering bloodsuckers? No thanks.

The room she leads me into is decorated in a black, white and silver colour scheme and the wall directly across from the entrance is entirely of glass, through which I have a great view of the Capitol.

She invites me to sit across from her at a table with glass legs and a black top, which is already set with a delicious looking lunch of Chicken Alfredo, a salad made of corn, cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots and lettuce with a small bowl of dressing beside it, dinner rolls and what looks like chocolate cupcakes with pink icing for dessert.

"Nice spread…"

"Thanks. I made it myself. Well, not really. The Avoxes made it, but I chose the menu. But they don't count, so let's eat, shall we?"

I dig in heartily. Chicken Alfredo is one of my favourite things to cook and this version tastes _almost_ as great as mine.

"While my partner Leonardo gets to fixing Graham up, I'm going to tell you what we plan to do. As you know, every year we're supposed to dress you up in something that represents what your district is all about. District 9 is grain. I'm thinking some sort of woven costume, like a basket…"

"I'm going to be wearing _baskets?!_"

"Well, _not quite…_" Desdemona grins. I can see a piece of lettuce stuck in her teeth.

"Oh good. At least baskets will better than District 12 and their coal get-ups. _Urgh!_" I shudder.

Desdemona grimaces. "Oh yes, I remember them. _Terrible. _Absolutely terrible. Last year in the 72nd Hunger Games, they were stark naked and covered in black dust..."

"So… My costume?"

"Yes, right. Like I was saying, I was thinking of a woven costume of sorts. Or at least the bottom half of it will be- like a hoop skirt. Now finish up and I'll get you suited up!"

* * *

Desdemona fixes some sort of band with three wheat grain strands in the middle over the bronze band in my fountain of hair and steps back to admire her creation.

I am wearing a straw coloured leotard with a narrow hoop skirt that resembles a basket over my bottom half with little tassels that look like wheat grains hanging around the hem.

Laced up brown boots adorn my feet and I also get some small, dangling earrings that look like wheat grains.

I look kinda strange, but overall, the effect isn't too bad. Not like that weird shit District 8 wore _(will wear!)_ in the 74th Hunger Games. _That_ looked like they just stitched together random pieces of cloth they found around on the floor…

Another door opens and Graham and his stylist Leonardo emerge. He's wearing a straw coloured suit with what looks like a crown woven out of wheat around his head and tassels like mine hanging off the legs and sleeves.

Again, I say- strange, but not too bad.

Ceres and Medusa coo in admiration over the costumes, but Dagan not so much. He merely nods in approval as we're escorted to the bottom of the Remake Centre.

When there, Desdemona touches up my makeup and then decides that my hair needs enough more hairspray to make me start choking.

"Cut it out, you'll ruin the makeup!" She exclaims.

I curse at her under my breath and with the expression on Graham's face after_ he's_ sprayed by Leonardo, he feels the same way about his stylist.

Soon enough, we're loaded up onto our chariot, which will be guided by chestnut brown horses.

"Good luck, you two!" Medusa says. "And remember: smile and look pretty for the cameras!" She goes off into parts unknown with the rest of the District 9 crew.

The beginning notes of the opening music start to play and the massive doors leading out into the city streets open.

The Tributes of District 1 are dressed in purple robes with silver accessories. Not bad…

District 2's costumes look like a glamourized version of the Peacekeeper uniform. Okay, but next year's costumes that Clove and Cato will wear look better than these, in my opinion.

District 4 is dressed in various shades of blue and white and the female looks like a mermaid while the male looks like King Neptune or something of the sort.

The various other costumes before us look… okay and soon enough, it's our turn to emerge.

The lights blind me for a few seconds, but I recover quickly and begin smiling and waving around at the crowd, just like Graham is doing. This part is actually kinda fun! I _love_ all the attention we're getting!

A few flowers are thrown in our direction and I manage to catch- a violet. I grin in the general direction it came from and the crowd roars. Nothing as enthusiastic as they will for the Girl on Fire, but still…

People are watching us from balcony buildings, cheering and screaming even more as we near the City Circle.

Once in the City Circle itself, I take the time to look at the other Tributes' costumes more closely.

The girl from District 2 looks scary up close, the District 8 girl looks kinda cute, District 12… Yeah, I'm gonna let your imagination fill in the blanks.

When I look up at the balcony of President Snow's mansion, he holds his arms out as if to welcome us. To our deaths.

You know, he kinda _does_ looks like an evil Santa Claus. And here I thought Melissa was being silly again…

I listen closely to what Mr President Evil has to say. A lot of propaganda, disguised as a grand speech for what is supposed to be a happy occasion. I guess it's entertaining in its own sort of way…

Eventually, he finishes his speech and all the chariots do one final circuit of the Circle before heading to the… _Training Centre._

I realize that this will be the last time I am allowed outside- even under watch- until I am thrust into the Games against my will.

The thought sends a shiver down my spine even though the evening is warm.


	4. Chapter 4

_Training._ It's the first day of training.

I bolt up out of bed suddenly.

_Training._ The word bangs around my head and doesn't stop until I head into the shower and the warm water and vanilla scented bubbles hit me.

I need to go down to the Training Centre and learn how to survive. And to kill people.

I will meet the other Tributes on level ground for the first time. Will I be good enough to attract anyone proposing an alliance? Will I learn anything well enough to survive?

Once I'm dry, I drag on the light grey and black track pants and matching short-sleeved shirt with my District number on the sleeves and back of it.

I stretch a bit, getting used to the feel of the clothes and roll my hair up into a bun as I head down to breakfast.

Gina and Melissa are standing on either side of the buffet.

I shudder.

I still cannot get used to the idea of them as Avoxes. But then again, who could? Get used to the idea of your best friends being Avoxes I mean?

Dagan and Medusa are already there eating and chatting idly.

Melissa motions to indicate that I can serve myself, which I do.

Loading up with pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs and even a bit of exotic fare like stewed salted codfish, slices of fried plantain and mango chunks, I move on to grab two dinner rolls and butter to accompany them. Finally a mug of coffee- cream and sugar- and I'm satisfied with what I've gathered and proceed to make sure that I sit as far away as I can from Medusa as I eat.

Ceres and Graham enter when I'm about halfway through my meal and we begin to talk about strategy, coaching and other things I'm going to need to know about.

"After you get back from your first training session, we'll talk about your personal strategies with you- separately of course…" Dagan says.

Ceres nodded. "Get a feel of what's down there first, scope out your opponents so we know what you're working with."

Sounds fair enough…

Medusa checks her watch. "Oh, look! It's almost ten o' clock! It's time to get moving you two! Chop, chop!" She finishes up and waits for Graham and me to do the same before the three of us head for the elevator.

* * *

About half of us are there by the time Graham and I get there. Pfft. The Wicked Witch didn't have to make me rush my breakfast to get here…

Ten minutes later or so, we're all here and Atala steps forward and begins to explain the workings of the Training Centre.

"_You will be free to travel from area to area as we choose. Some of the stations teach survival skills, others fighting techniques. You are forbidden to engage in any combative exercise with another tribute. There are assistants on hand if you want to practice with a partner…"_

Sounds like the same thing she says in the Hunger Games books. Whatever.

As soon as she's done, we all scatter across the various stations. I head to the edible plants station first, but someone else gets there first- the District 8 girl.

Her progress is rather quick though. For a girl who grew up in a District focused on making textiles, she sure seems to know a lot about plants- exactly the opposite of me. I was never very good at the Natural Sciences in school…

I try my hand at it next and I manage to identify a little less than half of them which is surprisingly good for someone who doesn't really know that much about plants…

I keep at it until I get about seventy percent of them right, deciding to try something else. If anything, I can try until I get all of them correct tomorrow.

Next, I head out to what looks like a more advanced, twisted version of monkey bars. Surely my flexibility from cheerleading will help me out here, right?

When I get there, the District 2 girl and her partner, a blue-eyed, blonde-haired boy who looks rather small for his supposed age but must be lethal enough for them to let him volunteer, as well as the District 1 and 4 boys appear behind me.

I don't like the feeling of these guys being so close to me. I don't like it at all. It feels like a dark presence has weighed over me when they came near.

I shake off the feeling and glance around at the other Tributes.

I see Graham trying to throw knives at targets, but he's not doing very well.

Anyway, back to my training.

I reach for the first bar and swing across the rest of them as effortlessly as if they were the kind you'd see in a playground.

When I'm almost at the platform on the other side however, I slip.

Luckily, my reflexes are quick so I manage to do a backflip and land on my feet.

Hm. Those Careers actually look impressed…

Next up for me is the fire building station. I fucking _hate_ cold, so I'd better learn how to keep myself warm in case they decide to put me in a climate similar to that of the Arctic Circle.

_Wait..._ Didn't Katniss say that there was an Arena where the Tributes mostly froze to death? I hope to the God I don't believe in that this Arena isn't that one…

Besides, I highly doubt I'd be able to make a fire out of ice…

The fire station guy shows me how to start fires out of several different materials. Flint, tree bark, bits of steel… Before this, the only fires I knew how to start were with matches or electric lighters.

Afterwards, I move on to hand-to-hand combat, which I actually do _worse_ in. This guy is fighting with a style that I'm totally unfamiliar with and all I can do is dodge. I can't manage to get in a single blow, which pisses me off royally until I'm wildly kicking, punching and slapping until one lucky- or unlucky for the assistant- kick lands straight in his balls.

I giggle. If he's helping train people to become lethal killers, shouldn't he be a bit more durable? Besides, the expression on his face as he went down with a little squeak was hilarious.

I've just finished with knot-tying when the signal for lunch comes.

The Careers all sit together; rowdily asserting their dominance over the others, just as Katniss says their successors will in the next Games.

I see the three Career girls whispering together and throwing glances around as lunch goes on. District 1 has platinum blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and District 4's dark brown hair is cut into a short, slanted bob.

I keep my head down, focusing on cutting up the lasagne in front of me when Graham appears.

"Hey, Violette…" He says quietly. "How was your training?"

"So-so. I did okay with the swinging bars and the fire building station, but the edible plants, knots and my hand-to-hand combat skills could do with some work…" I shrugged.

"Lucky you. I feel like I failed at everything I tried my hand at. I'm no good at throwing knives, I can barely get up the climbing wall and I'm a weakling so it's no use trying to lift any of those weights- not even the lightest ones! I'll be going home in a coffin for sure!" He puts his head in his hands.

I don't even try to comfort him because I know it's true. And that I'll probably be going back in the same fashion.

Lunch is soon over and we all head back to training.

I look over to the swordsmanship area where all the Careers are gathered, watching District 2 girl take up a pair of butterfly swords.

The first dummy she leaps at, cutting the arms clean off at the shoulder joints and taking the head clean off.

_Holy shit._

The second dummy, she hacks to bits.

The third one- one of the swords goes straight through its throat.

Wow. District 2 girl is slicing up those dummies with that pair of butterfly swords as easily as if she were cutting through warm butter…

I have a horrible image of her doing that to me and decide that it's time for me to move on.

Archery. Katniss' specialty. Something I developed a fascination with when I was younger.

My fingers close around the bow, I string up an arrow, take aim and…

I have to stop myself from jumping up and down and cheering as I actually hit the bull's-eye.

I try again, again and again. I have a fairly good aim and manage to make most of them. I don't think I'll be able to get someone through the eye, but I might be able to hit their arm and slow them down at least.

Eventually, training is over for the day and I find myself in the elevator with Graham.

"Well, did you improve, any?" I asked.

"Uh-uh. I'm sure to get the lowest score in history and die in the bloodbath…" He hangs his head down.

"Pfft. So am I. I mean, did you see those Careers around the swordsmanship area today? Nothing can help me if they decide to make mincemeat out of me…"

After that, we are silent until we reach our floor and head to our quarters.

Feeling peckish by then, I press a button to order some cheesy crackers and flop onto the bed with them.

* * *

Later on, I'm the last person to arrive at dinner. Taking my own, sweet time loading up the plate I've been given, I sit next to Ceres, who has thankfully seated herself far, _far _away from Medusa.

"_Finally!_ We've been waiting for you for ages! Where have you been?" Medusa asks, raising an eyebrow.

"We've only been here ten minutes, Medusa…" Dagan points out.

Ceres lets out something between a giggle and a snort.

"Never mind that! How was training?" Medusa smiles like a Cheshire cat.

"It sucked." Says Graham.

"So-so." I shrugged.

"Ah. Well, you can talk to your Mentors later about strategies and such." Medusa waves dismissively and we get back to dinner, not speaking again until we've all finished.

"Okay, Violette. Come with me and we'll have that chat that I promised you earlier." Ceres rises and I follow her into a room down the corridor.

"So… Today… How did it go for you?" She asked.

"I covered edible plants, fire building, knotting, archery and hand-to-hand combat. Plus there was that high bar, overhead ladder thingie. I did well with that, but I slipped near the end. I did manage to land on my feet perfectly fine though."

"Good. You don't need a broken leg at this stage. What about the other Tributes? Did you size up any as potential allies? Did you see anyone sizing _you_ up?"

"Well, I saw some of the Careers sizing me up when I was at the ladder… I hardly doubt that's enough to be invited to join their pack- and quite frankly I'm not sure I'd want to even if they invited me…"

Ceres pauses. "It's true that it'd take more than that for them to be interested in you. Still, you managed to catch their eye so that must be something. I would say to be weary of them. We don't know how they're thinking. We don't know if they think you're a potential ally or a threat…"

I nod in agreement.

"What next then?"

"Try out some new things and continue work on the ones that you're not so sharp at. You need to do what you can to improve your strength. Being quick enough to dodge and evade is all nice and good, but what happens when it comes down to a fight? You need enough power to drive that weapon straight in…" Ceres makes a motion to demonstrate her last sentence.

"I understand. I might be able to lift some smaller weights, but nothing huge…"

"Every bit counts, Violette. Every little bit counts. Now why don't you go onto bed and get ready for tomorrow?" Ceres rises from her chair and I do the same.

* * *

Day two comes and I'm back at the edible plants station again. This time, I'm doing, much, much better than the last time and I manage to identify them all.

Next, I go over to the climbing wall and am about to start it before I hear a voice call out to me.

"Hey, District 9."

I freeze.

"Climbing wall, huh?" District 2 girl makes an appearance next to me.

"Yep. Climbing wall." I snap out of my trance and start climbing. Judging by a few scraping sounds behind me; I can hear that she's decided to join me up there as well.

I reach the top about a minute before she does and wait for her to get up there as well.

"Look at that. You actually beat me to the top. Well done, District 9." She nods.

"Well compare climbing a wall to what you did to those dummies yesterday and you're better off that I am…" I would have shrugged, but I'd have to let go of the wall to do that…

"True. You're pretty nimble though."

I don't answer as I begin my descent.

She doesn't speak either as she descends the wall.

We separate and I head towards the sword station. Goodness knows I'd need the practice if I came up in a swordfight against her…

There are new rows of dummies set up for those who want to practice on them today.

I take up what I think is a scimitar and set to work.

Swinging it with as much strength as I can muster, I only manage to make a deep gash in the dummy's neck. I don't have enough strength to behead it like District 2 girl did.

The next dummy I manage to loosen its arm and take off a few fingers. Hmm. If my opponent has no fingers, they can't kill me, right?

Well, if they're skilled with their teeth like Enobaria was... I shudder at the thought. Then I remember that both Enobaria and the Career that just talked to me were both District 2 females and the shudders come on even stronger.

Shaking my head, I continue down the row.

* * *

On the third day, Ceres and I have a private breakfast.

"Well, we're almost there, Violette. How are you feeling?" She asked.

"_Scared shitless." _

Why bother hiding my fear?

_I'm a freaking cheerleader,_ not a fighter!

I will die here in the twisted world of Panem that I'm no longer glad Suzanne Collins has created.

Dominique sent me here to die and no matter what I do, she will more than likely get her wish. I mean, if she had the power to send me into the books in the first place, who's to say she isn't controlling the plot as well?

"Well, being that scared isn't going to get you a good score so try to keep your nerves down when you're in there with the Gamemakers. As for those Careers…" Ceres pauses.

"If they make you an offer, go along with it. Just remember that they are your enemies in the end and you are theirs. If it looks like they'd turn against you at any point, _get the hell out of there._"

"Gotcha." I speak through a mouthful of hash browns.

Ceres checks her watch. "Well then, it's about time for you to get down to your last training session. Good luck Violette."

She sees me to the elevator where Dagan is standing with Graham and I have to scramble to reach the elevator before it closes.

We remain in silence until we reach our destination and then separate without looking at one another.

Camouflage is pretty fun. It's like painting.

Melissa loves painting. Ginger likes crafts. Gina can draw. They were all rather artistic…

Wait, why am I speaking of them in the past tense as if they have died?

I guess by being here, it's as good as being dead, as I no doubt will be in a few days…

All too soon, it's time for the sessions to come to an end as us Tributes go to our final lunch together.

I notice the Careers glance at me now and then, but they have not invited me to join them. In a way, I'm kinda relieved. I'd never be able to sleep with them hanging around me.

Then I remember the nature of the Hunger Games and I realize I may never get to sleep _at all._

* * *

Once my name is called, I stride into the gymnasium, trying to hide the fear that's threatening to consume me. Now's _not _the time to get scared.

I can start getting scared when I'm in the Launch Room.

I take in the array of weapons and obstacles and decide to head for the evil-looking monkey bars first.

I move through them swiftly and easily, this time not slipping as I land on the other platform.

A few of the Gamemakers nod in approval.

Next, I head for the climbing wall, which I make short work of.

Now for offensive stuff. I'm sure they'll get bored seeing me just scramble around the whole time…

I perform some karate moves on the dummies- with knives in each of my hands. This method seems to work better than what I had tried previously. I guess it's because I put in more force this time.

My knife throwing skills also show some improvement. I don't always hit somewhere like an eye or the chest area, but at least they all make impact…

I am finally dismissed and I leave feeling that at least I won't have the lowest score ever in the history of the Hunger Games.

* * *

At tonight's dinner, Desdemona and Leonardo make an appearance.

I'm just sitting there, eating my pea soup and my mind wanders off to happier times again.

It's the day of my tenth birthday party and my family, Gina, Melissa, Ginger and a few other unimportant people are singing the Happy Birthday song.

"Hey, V! Open _my_ present first!" Melissa practically bounces over to me.

I practically rip the paper off to see a ballerina Barbie in the package.

"Thanks so much, Meli!" I hug her tightly.

Gina's present to me is one of those books that has all sorts of fun stuff and suggestions for girls. For a book, it wasn't all that bad…

Ginger's present is an arts and crafts set, which after we've had our fill of snacks and games and before it's time for them to go home, she, I, Melissa and Gina start on, painting beautiful flowers and leaves, spilling glitter all over the place…

The glitter of Desdemona's multi-coloured nails in my face startles me.

"Violette, you're finished, right? It's time for us to go see the scores!" She says in that annoying voice of hers.

"Yeah, I'm done. Let's go…"

We all get settle in, me sitting in a couch between Desdemona and Ceres, Graham between Leonardo and Dagan and the evil bitch queen sits in her own chair and turns on the screen.

Caesar Flickerman appears, startling me with his crimson colour scheme. Katniss wasn't kidding when she said he looked like he was bleeding…

Both District 1 Tributes get nines. The District 2 girl whose name turns out to be Titania gets a ten and her partner scores the same. No surprise there…

District 4 boy gets an eight while the girl gets a nine.

District 7's bear guy gets a nine as well.

District 8- the thirteen year old girl manages a six. Not bad, from what I saw of her…

District 9… My District. You know, back in Montreal, I always used to wonder what sort of score I'd get in training. On the online Hunger Games forums, we'd discuss all sorts of aspects of the Games, including this.

Little did I know that I'd actually get to find out…

Despite Graham's worries, he's not the lowest scoring Tribute ever. He gets a five.

Then my picture flashes.

_An eight._

Holy shit, I got an eight.

_Me,_ an eight! I got the same score that Peeta did!

Desdemona and Ceres both give me high-fives and Dagan gives his congratulations. Even Graham offers his congratulations.

The only person not celebrating is the evil bitch queen with the freaky powers.

_Screw her. _

If I die, I die fighting.


	5. Chapter 5

Today is more training, though not of the kind that involves weaponry.

Today's training is for the televised interviews. They schedule in a whole day between our last weapons/survival training day and the interviews for us to practice for the interviews.

How generous.

Ceres and I elect to have breakfast privately that day and then jump immediately into our preparations.

Thank goodness that I don't have to work with evil bitch queen for this one like Katniss had to work with Effie…

"Now, let's get to work, shall we Violette?" She smiles and heads to a chest from which she pulls out a long, elegant dress and heels that while they aren't as high as Desdemona's still unnerve me. The highest I go is about 4-5 inches. These? These are probably twice that.

I get dressed quickly and we get to work.

I try walking like I'm a contestant on Canada's Next Top Model. I don't wobble as much as I would if I was a novice to this type of footwear, but I'm still slightly unsteady.

"Why do I have to even wear these things? At this height? I'm sure the high heels they give me for the interview won't be this high! I mean, I could probably kill a fellow Tribute with theses spikes!"

"You never know if Desdemona will put you in shoes that high so it's best to be prepared…" Ceres says. "Now twirl for me. Do a little movement. Do a jig. Jump."

I start feeling like a circus animal being trained as I do all of these different things. I even start imagining Ceres in a ringmaster's outfit, whip and all.

Though I never forget who the true ringmaster is here- and it's not President Snow.

"Great! Violette! You're wonderful!"

I know.

You know, I can't even feel these shoes now? I'm so focused on getting this interview thing right that I can actually no longer feel the shoes…

"You can obviously carry yourself well in heels and formal wear, so let's move onto the content portion of our show, huh? Now, what angle should we play you up as?" She muses. "I persuaded Desdemona to let me have a sneak peek at your interview dress and I have to say, it really suits you!"

"Really? What does it look like?" I ask eagerly.

"No, no, no! I'm not allowed to tell you that! Technically, I'm not even supposed to see the dress beforehand, but trust me, you'll love it. Now, how about we come up with an angle that suits the dress? Don't want to go out acting like a lethal killing machine in a flower patterned dress, do we?"

"Is it-" I start.

"No, at least not really…" She grins and I give up trying to grill her on the appearance of my dress.

"So, Violette. Let's pretend I'm Caesar and we're at the interview now. I'll go take my seat…" She sits in one cushioned chair and pulls another one next to her, obviously intended for me.

"You go stand over there, near to the door." She waves me away.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome to the 73rd annual HUNGER GAMES!" She says.

I can imagine the audience starting to clap and cheer.

"Are you all excited? In a few minutes, all the Tributes you've heard so much about will be out here on stage!"

She pauses, pretending that there are more outbursts of applause and cheering.

"Blah, blah, blah… Up next is District 9's female Tribute, Violette Gardner!"

I stride over to her and smooth out my dress before sitting, crossing my ankles when I do.

"Nice walk, by the way." Ceres compliments me before resuming her Caesar pretence.

"So, Violette Gardner of District 9. How are you feeling tonight?"

"I feel great Caesar." I smiled.

"And why do you feel so great? What do you think of your chances of winning this year's Hunger Games?" Ceres asks.

"I think I stand an okay chance. I can't be counted out just yet…"

I make it through the pretend interviews decently. Through the next few hours, Ceres throws all sorts of potential questions at me and though I stumble over some, I manage to correct that fairly quickly.

"Okay folks, that's it from this year's District 9 female tribute, Violette Gardner!" She stands and so do I, with her holding my hand into the air and grinning.

Afterwards, we fall back into our seats chuckling.

"You pull off a very convincing Caesar, Ceres!" I say, still giggling.

"Thanks. I've had practice at it for years… You know he was there when I went through my Games, right? He was even there when Dagan won. I think he started like, two or three years before Dagan won. He won the 34th Games and I think Caesar's been around since the 30th…"

"Whoa, he's old!" I exclaim in surprise. "He doesn't look it at all! I didn't know surgery could help you look _that_ young!"

Having seen how Caesar looks for real and adding in this information, plus what I've read in the books… wow.

"I'm guessing he's about in his sixties or seventies then?" I ask.

"Don't ask me that. That one I _don't_ know. It's a tightly guarded Capitol secret." Ceres giggle-snorts.

If she lived back in Montreal, I bet she'd be a fun aunt. It's amazing how she's managed to stay so light-hearted despite everything she must have gone through. Her own Games, watching all her Tributes die…

Or maybe she isn't really light-hearted. Maybe this is all a façade to her.

Maybe she's just doing it to make her Tributes' last days not as bad as they could be.

* * *

It's the day of the interviews and I have to be roused by Melissa and Gina.

My prep team is waiting for me outside and it takes a few minutes for me to fully wake up.

I spend the entire day getting a full-body spa treatment. All sorts of oils, creams and other things I don't recognize are rubbed into my skin and hair.

Running their fingers through my hair, shining silver glitter is spread through it, making it look like stars are shining there.

Then they roll it up into a bun which is held up by a silver band and proceed to work on my makeup. Lip gloss, lilac eye-shadow, pronounced mascara and eyeliner…

My nails are painted in a glossy silver colour and they paint light silver designs over my body.

Soon enough, they lead me into another room where Desdemona awaits with my dress.

She slips it on and then I finally get to take a good look at it.

And man, is it _gorgeous._

It's a lilac colour that glitters silver, the sleeves reach to my wrists and it is high necked. The skirt which is shaped like flower petals and is a slightly darker shade than the rest of the dress reaches to my ankles. Silver stilettos, drop earrings and a matching necklace complete the ensemble.

Desdemona has done great. While Katniss will be the Girl on Fire, I am the blossoming flower.

I love it.

My prep team cheers in admiration of Desdemona's work as I do a little twirl and bow for them.

Desdemona dismisses them soon and has me walk around, getting used to the feel of the dress and shoes, which are a manageable height.

"So, you ready for the interview, Flower?" She asks, smiling.

"I think so and this dress certainly helps. Thank you Desdemona! It's gorgeous!" I smile at her.

"_Unlike you!" _I think.

"Okay then. Here's how this is going to work, Violette." Desdemona then proceeds to give me a rundown of what the programme is like, how I am supposed to sit, a few interview tips and even where she, Ceres and evil bitch queen will be in the audience.

Half an hour later, it's time to head out onto the stage.

I take a deep breath, smooth out my dress and open the door for us to leave and meet up with Graham and his team.

He's dressed in a black dress pants with matching shoes, a formal shirt with some ruffles down the front and a dark yellow bowtie. It makes him look a bit older than he is, but looks good on him.

Hm. And we don't match like Katniss and Peeta will…

Ceres moves to give me a hug, but stops herself, probably thinking she'll mess me up or something.

She gives me the thumbs up as Graham and I leave the elevator and take our places on stage for the interviews.

* * *

District 1 girl goes sexy like Glimmer will, in a short, form fitting bustier red dress and matching heels. _I_ personally think she looks like a blonde Satan. All that's missing is the tail and horns. Oh, and the pitchfork.

Titania is fierce, dressed in all-black, with elbow-length gloves and sky high flared ankle boots.

District 4's boy is witty, getting the audience to laugh with a few jokes.

District 7's boy aka Mr Bear is surprisingly charming.

The District 8 girl, whose name turns out to be Velvet, is quiet and humble.

Caesar has gone through the interviews like a pro, playing them up, helping them out. He really has the charisma Katniss says he does.

His appearance is still rather freaky and he still looks like he's bleeding to me though…

All too soon, it's my turn to join him.

"Please welcome to the stage District 9's very own… _Violette Gardner!_"

I brush off my dress and get up, striding over with my head held high.

"Welcome, welcome, _welcome_ to the Capitol, Violette. How do you like it here?" he asks.

"I think it's a really great, fun place!" I smile.

I_ really_ do think it's nice. It's just sad that I don't really belong in Panem at all and my being here will probably lead to my death…

"It is, isn't it?" He smiles. "So, Violette. How do you fancy your chances in these Games?"

"I don't think you can count me out just yet. I'm a survivor. My willpower will keep me going. Plus I'm pretty quick and if they can't catch me, they can't kill me, now can they?" I smirk, deciding to play up the cocky angle.

"No, no they can't." Caesar nods in agreement.

"What's your strategy- your plan for winning this thing?"

"Can't tell you that, now can I? I'd give away all my secrets!"

He laughs and so does the audience.

The interview runs smoothly and then the buzzer goes off.

"It looks like our time is done here, Violette Gardner. Best of luck." He shakes my hand and the audience applauds as I go back to my previous seat and watch the rest of the interviews.

Graham pulls off a quiet, shy angle, which I think is natural for him.

District 11's tall girl whose name is Kalei is a mystery. She mixes up a few different angles and keeps the audience captive with her act the entire time.

District 12's interviews are nothing special, but they're not epic failures either.

Once the interviews are over and the anthem finishes playing, we Tributes file back into the Training Centre, where Desdemona and Ceres are waiting for me.

"You did good out there, V. You did good." Ceres claps me on the back.

"You carried off my design really well!" Desdemona cheers.

Medusa comes up to us, clapping a slow, sort of sarcastic clap.

"Well, done Violette. Well done. I wasn't quite sure about your interview, but you pulled it off!" She says.

I edge away from her as Graham and his crew come up to us and she goes over to talk to them.

* * *

Once we're all on our floor, Medusa announces that dinner will be served in an hour and we're free to go to our rooms until then.

I take off my shoes as I go, and as soon as I'm back into my room, I rub my feet and sigh in relief.

"Those shoes were gorgeous, but being in them for so long…" I groan.

Minutes later, I am in the shower, fiddling with all the soaps and scents there, scrubbing off all the makeup and glitter.

Dressed simply once again, I head to what is more than likely my last dinner.

The mood is more subdued than it has been at previous dinners and there is barely any chatter, except for the occasional food-related request.

When we've all finished, Medusa aka evil bitch queen is the only cheerful one present and leads us all off to watch the replay of the interviews.

One good thing about tonight?

I look good on television.

When the anthem finishes and the show is over, everyone remains silent and it's up to the evil bitch queen to break the tension which is so thick, one could cut through it with a knife.

Ceres grasps my hands firmly in hers and wishes me all the best.

"You know, it would be nice to have some female company in the Victor's Village so make sure you come back alive, okay?" She gives me one final hug.

Graham and I separate to go off to our rooms after saying our goodbyes to our mentors and the evil bitch queen escort.

Or at least what I think will be goodbyes.

Once I'm dressed for bed in my room, I hear the door open and here comes She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named herself.

"Hey there, pretty flower. Excited for tomorrow?" She smirks as she resumes human form and leans against the door.

"Yeah. _No,_ not really…" I say coolly.

"Well, zat is too bad for you. I am and I know I shall be excited to see how you do in zese Games. You always wanted to know how you would do in zem and I am granting you your wish!"

"Yeah… _In my imagination!_" I exclaim.

"Anyway, I have got to be off now. You should know that powerful as I am, I cannot affect the outcome of ze Games zemselves, so you 'ad better hope zat _le odds are ever een your favour!_ You may die een le Bloodbath, you may make eet 'alf-way, you may even win. Any of those, I get to enjoy eet and you suffer. Win-win for me, not so much for you…"

I hear her cackles in my sleep that night.

* * *

I wake up the next morning when Gina and Melissa rouse me.

Jumping up startled from my dream of beating off Titania, I swing around wildly, hitting Melissa in the eye.

"Oh my goodness! I'm sorry!"

She waves it off.

We hug tightly for a few minutes and Melissa hands me a note with her handwriting.

"_We hope the odds are ever in your favour, Violette. Good luck."_

I give both of them a teary hug and all too soon, my last bit of comfort, my last bit of real friendship before I head to my death is gone.

About fifteen minutes later, Desdemona enters the room and gives me a simple brown dress to wear.

I'm thinking to myself that a dress is not practical clothing at all for what I'm about to face when I remember that I will receive my actual arena clothing when I get to the catacombs under the arena itself.

I am escorted to the hovercraft on the roof which will take me to the arena and see other Tributes being escorted to theirs as well.

Once I am seated inside, a woman in a white lab coat carrying a large syringe approaches me with it.

"This is just your tracker, Violette. Keep still so I can place it properly."

Joy. So they don't lose a Tribute. Don't want that to happen, now would we? I imagine President Snow would be mighty pissed if it did. I wonder if that's happened in the past…

Once tracker injecting woman goes away, Desdemona reappears and another Avox that I don't recognize for once escorts us into another room where breakfast awaits.

Despite the fact that terror is threatening to consume me at this point, I manage to eat as much as I can hold comfortably, daydreaming of freedom and better times as I look out the windows as we fly over the Capitol and into the wilderness.

Minutes later, the windows black out suddenly and I jump back from them, startled.

"It's okay, Violette. It just means we're getting near to the arena is all…" Desdemona says.

Once it lands, we go down the ladder which leads down into a narrow underground tube with the catacombs on the other end.

Here I am. The Launch Room. The Stockyard. The last room I'll see before I rise to the arena above.

I go and give myself a vigorous scrubbing to my body and teeth. I enjoy it while it lasts since this will either be my last shower ever- or if I am to trust what the evil bitch queen said about not affecting the odds of the Games themselves- for a while _if_ I win.

Desdemona rolls my hair up into a tight bun and takes out the package of clothes waiting for me.

I get thick brown pants, a tan coloured long-sleeved shirt, a good belt and some hiking boots worn over skin-tight socks. I'm guessing by the similarity to Katniss' clothing, perhaps the arena and climate will be similar.

She finishes it off with a hooded waist-length jacket and hands me my district token, which I fasten around my neck myself.

"Everything fits perfectly, Violette? Move around and get a feel of it." Desdemona commands.

I twirl around, throw a few punches and kicks to the air and do a backflip.

"Yep, definitely fits well." I judge.

There's nothing else to do now but wait.

Waiting is _always_ the worst part.

Normally, I hate waiting, but in this case, I can make an exception.

_Holy shit._

I could be dead. Flat Out _Fucking _dead in a few minutes.

I'm going to have to go up there and fight for my fucking life in a few minutes!

I begin to hyperventilate and I get the feeling as if I could piss my pants so I run to the bathroom to make sure I don't.

I splash water over my face and it calms my nerves a bit, but only slightly as I'm still shaking.

Desdemona hands me a glass of water and I manage to stop shaking- at least until the call comes for me to prepare for launch at which I choke on the water and begin to shake again.

She leads me over to the circular metal plate and gives me one final hug.

"It's been nice working with you Violette. Remember all the training you've gotten and whatever advice Ceres has given you and may the odds be ever in your favour." She smiles weakly and then a glass cylinder lowers around me, giving me a feeling of claustrophobia- which I have never had before in my life until now.

I'm still slightly quavering as the cylinder rises and I am thrust into darkness for a few seconds until I feel the metal plate pushing me out into cool, crisp air.

When I open my eyes, the first thing that comes to mind is how glad I am of the time I spent at the climbing wall…


	6. Chapter 6

Mountains.

Lots and lots of mountains- and cliffs and I see some snow on some of those peaks, oh dear god...

This arena looks like a combination of the Swiss Alps, The Himalayas and the Rocky Mountains.

All of their different features somehow combined into one arena. Wow, these Gamemakers are good…

All twenty four of us Tributes surround the golden Cornucopia which is centred in the middle of a valley. The supplies are scattered all around it with the more valuable looking stuff closer to the horn itself, like Katniss says the layout usually is.

I glance around at my fellow Tributes, some of whom are still taking in their surroundings like Graham is and some who already look poised to go, like Titania.

_10,_

_9,_

_8…_

I crouch slightly, fists clenched, ready to go…

_7,_

_6,_

_5…_

I'm going to do my best and show those bitches Dominique and Claudette who's boss around here…

_4,_

_3,_

_2…_

Not to mention returning home alive and hopefully as well as possible…

_1…_

The gong rings out and I am fast, running as fast as I can, pushing my body to the max.

I somehow reach the Cornucopia first and grab everything I can possibly hold including a waist belt that holds several different knives and pouches, a large black backpack, a grappling hook and a sword.

I feel a presence behind me and I swing around the sword wildly, cutting the District 11 boy across the stomach.

The District 3 boy comes at me next and I run the sword straight through him. _Dead for sure,_ I think.

I risk glancing back and I see that though Graham has a deep gash in his cheek, he has managed to grab a pack and is taking off through the trees.

I also see District 1 boy coming at me and I pick up speed I didn't even know I had, running through the forest.

An arrow whizzes past my head, grazing it slightly, but I ignore the slight pain and keep pushing on.

Perhaps I should have been a track athlete instead of a cheerleader. I could have probably made the Canadian Olympics team!

I come up against a mountain and swing around the grappling hook, using it to help me climb.

I don't look back again until I've reached a small ledge and I see that there's still some fighting going on.

It's mid-afternoon when I finally hear the cannons, just as I've managed to reach a small cave near the top of the mountain I'm climbing.

I crouch at the entrance and pause to listen.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

_Seven._

Eleven died-er… _will die_ on the first day of Katniss' Hunger Games and seven have in these Games, so that means more for me to fight.

I wonder if Graham is still alive…

Going deeper into the cave after retrieving the grappling hook, I decide to see what's in my pack.

Gloves that will both keep my hands warm and help climb, a half-gallon bottle of water that's still slightly cold- probably due to the climate, a box of matches, a packet of trail mix, a packet of apple slices, a packet of something that looks like beef jerky, a small box of crackers, a small plastic cup, a small first-aid kit, a pair of night-vision goggles, a small black sleeping bag that looks just big enough to hold me and a rope.

I guess because I was faster than Katniss, I managed to get a better haul. Combine this with my sword, the belt with all the different knives and pouches attached and the grappling hook, I feel that going into the Cornucopia melee has certainly been worth it. And I barely got a scratch.

_Stuff it, Dominique and Claudette!_

I use my fingers to write in the dirt, sorting out my thoughts, trying to come up with a plan for the next few days.

I will have to leave this cave eventually. Even if I had enough supplies to last me forever, the Capitol _must _have their victor, meaning that they will drive us together when the numbers dwindle.

Not to mention that someone could come up into the same area I'm in and I'd have to kill them.

And the feast.

And so many other factors…

I dab around the back of my bleeding ear which I've ignored until now with my fingers and wipe off the blood on my clothes- which joins the few splotches I got from other Tributes...

Nothing else to do right now except wait…

Nightfall comes and with it, the anthem begins to play and the seal of the Capitol floats in the sky.

It flashes again and the pictures and Districts of the fallen Tributes are shown.

The District 3 boy, District 5 girl, District 6 boy, District 7 boy, Both District 10 Tributes and the District 12 boy are gone.

Hm. District 7 boy. The bear guy. Rohan. He's the only real surprise there. I expected him to last longer than this with his size and that 9 he got in training. I wonder if a Career took him out…

Well, Katniss did say that high scoring Tributes can go down almost immediately depending on the variables of the arena…

Seven of us are dead. None of the Careers have died, neither Graham nor I have died obviously and even the District 12 girl has survived…

I actually killed someone. The District 3 boy. I murdered him.

_Murdered him. Murdered him. Murdered him._

The words echo around my brain and I moan as I try to shake them out.

_Murdered him. Murdered him. Murdered him._

"_No…"_ I clutch my hands to my head and shake it.

I cannot grow this weak this early. I don't like the thought of being a murderer but facts are facts and I will more than likely have to kill even more to make it out of these Games alive.

I take a deep breath and walk around the cave, stretching a bit.

As it gets later into the night, a chill descends and I begin to shiver.

Did I mention I hate cold?

Granted I've lived my entire life in an area where it snows every year, but I still never get used to it.

"_I hate cold…"_ I mutter, hugging myself, trying to get warm.

I shudder my way over to the pack which I've placed in the farthest part of the cave and rummage for the gloves and sleeping bag.

Slipping on the gloves and retrieving one of the knives which I keep in my grasp just in case, I snuggle down into the sleeping bag for the night.

* * *

BOOM!

I am startled out of a dreamless sleep by the sound of a cannon blast and wave around the knife I fell asleep with wildly.

Someone else has died.

Now the death total is up to eight.

Eight of us dead, sixteen of us left to play.

I've actually survived a day. It's a miracle, I tell you…

In my sleep, my bun has come loose and I find the band back in the sleeping bag, so I fix back my hair as best as I can.

I take out the food supplies I have and try to decide what to eat now.

The half-gallon bottle of water, the packets of trail mix, apple slices and beef jerky, not to mention the box of crackers…

Once again, I'm glad that I took the risk going into the Cornucopia.

I take two crackers and sandwich a small piece of beef jerky between them, eat a slice of apple and chase it down with half the cupful of water and I'm satiated.

Packing up my supplies, tying the grappling hook around my waist and clutching my sword, I venture forward to the mouth of the cave.

Making sure to keep low, I look around, taking in my surroundings.

The weather has become slightly warmer, though still cool. The pine trees around the base of my mountain and scattered around the arena blow gently in the breeze. It almost feels like I'm on a nice, lovely ski trip and I've got a nice, tiny cave in a tiny mountain to myself…

The afternoon passes peacefully and I even grow bored. The climate prevents me from being easily dehydrated like Katniss was, even at the expense of getting a little chill which I have to remind myself I need to stop bitching at since there are bigger things to worry about at the moment…

Of course, my peace just _had_ to be interrupted…

I hear huffing and puffing coming up the side of my mountain and a male voice grumbling.

Eyes widening, I scramble to the very back of my cave and grab the biggest rock I can lift with one hand and clutch my sword even tighter with the other.

Soon enough, the District 5 boy who's around my age climbs up to the mouth of the cave.

Thank goodness I didn't light a fire or something so he could tell I was here…

He looks even more battered than I am, with a black eye and what look like animal scratches across his face and hands.

Shit. Animals. I forgot they'd have those here. What the hell will I do if they decide to throw in a polar bear and a few coyotes for good measure? I don't have any long range weapons…

From behind the large rock where I'm hiding and by now my heart is racing, I assess the situation.

I'm going to have to take him out. No questions about it. I plan on staying here in this cave until the Gamemakers force me out since it's nice, cosy and only temporarily unsafe.

He's huge though…

The cameras must be in on us now, wondering what I'm going to do next. Those bumbling buffoons of Capitol citizens must be pissing their pants, wondering what's going to happen now.

Not to mention my family and district, plus Ginger, Gina and Melissa. Oh, and the evil bitch queen aka Dominique/Medusa.

If I play this right, not only will I survive, but I'll also get his supplies. Not to mention possibly attracting a few sponsors…

I move slowly, raising the rock and…

Oh shit. He's turned around and spotted me. _Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…_

He rushes at me with a spear and throws it, which I narrowly dodge.

I throw the rock at him and miss.

_Shit, shit, shit…_

He draws a knife next and rushes at me so quickly, I don't have time to react and he pins me to the ground with the knife at my throat.

_Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,_ _oh shit,_ I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, _I'm gonna die…_

People back in District 9 must be clutching to one another in fear…

My mom's probably crying…

Dominique's probably cheering…

He jams the knife down and it scrapes the side of my neck, drawing blood.

Again, again, again. I manage to move my head around and he keeps missing.

"Keep still so I can kill you, man!" He snarls.

"Hell no! I want to _live!_" I struggle, kicking, screaming, and reaching for one of the knives in my belt…

One of my wild kicks gets him in the balls and he keels over squeaking, just like the trainer did back in the Training Centre.

I can hardly believe it…

While he's down, I take the knife he's dropped and throw it right at him.

What do you know? It landed right in the middle of his chest.

My aim is improving…

His eyes widen in surprise as he glances down at the knife sticking out of his chest.

Before he can do anything else, I use all the strength I can muster to shove him over the side of the cliff.

The death cannon booms before he even hits the distant ground.

My second kill…

I grimace as his body hits the ground and his head splits open.

"_That was really unpleasant…"_ I say aloud as I retreat into the cave and watch as the body is drawn upwards into a hovercraft in those awful metal claws, swinging around the body near the front of my cave.

I wince as I touch the gash around the side of my neck. It's not deep enough to cause some serious problems, but it's still pretty painful…

I drag off my gloves and go into my pack for the first aid kit.

Dabbing some cotton balls in disinfectant, I wipe them around the cut, trying to ignore the pain of the stinging and then bandage it.

Once that's done, I pack up my own supplies and check to see what supplies the _wonderful_ District 5 boy has brought for me…

More crackers, more beef jerky, some raisins, sugar cubes, more water, some more knives, a blanket, a flashlight and a few spare heads for the spear he dropped.

I've done well, _hehehehehehe…_

Stuff it, Dominique!

I'm smiling to myself as I have some apple slices and raisins for dinner.

Night comes quickly afterwards and just as I'm bundling up for sleep, another canon blast rings out.

A few minutes later, the anthem plays and the seal makes an appearance. Now, the pictures of the District 5, 8 and 11 boys adorn the night sky.

Even though I'm starting to feel groggy, I see the picture of the District 11 boy that I wounded yesterday in the sky and begin to wonder if he succumbed to the wound I gave him or if it was something else…

I guess I'll never know unless I can get out of here and ask Ceres or something…

"_Well, I'm glad it's not me…"_ I whisper to myself as I snuggle down to sleep.

* * *

I wake up while it's still dark so I have no clue whether it's day three or not.

A clue I do have though is that it's freaking _cold._

Cold enough to make my teeth start chattering, oh dear god…

I draw on my gloves; pull the hood of my jacket up, zip it up as far as it will go and wrap myself in the blanket.

No need for cool water right now. I'm cool enough as it is…

I light a match, building a small bonfire out a few twigs and rocks I found lying around the cave.

As the sun's rays spread out weakly over the arena's sky, the temperature doesn't seem to get any better.

In fact, it seems to get progressively worse…

If there are a few things I actually remembered in school is that the higher one goes up in nature, the colder the air around gets. At least, I think…

The Gamemakers are also probably fucking around with the temperature so combine that with my current high altitude…

If I stay up here, I will turn into a human icicle. What a lame way to die…

Folding up the blanket and placing it back into the pack I got after I… _killed…_ the District 5 boy, I survey the cave to see if I've got everything.

Once I've secured my sword and the spear I got yesterday in that handy weapon utility belt, I shake myself a bit, getting used to the weight of both packs and trying to get a little warmer in preparation for my descent.

"Well, here I go. It's been nice staying with you, little cave, but it's time I get a move on. I can't hide forever, can I?" I smile slightly for the cameras, just in case they are focused on me now.

I retrieve my grappling hook, close my pack and head for the exit.

Once I'm sure that the hook is safely in place, I gingerly put my feet down on to begin my descent.

I panic slightly as I begin to slip, sending some rocks tumbling down the side, but grasping the rope on the edge of the hook firmly, I steady myself and my heart slows down to a normal rate and stops acting as if it wants to leap right out of my chest.

Taking my time going down, the sun has come up fully, but the temperature hasn't gotten any warmer.

Once I reach a ledge, I pull down the grappling hook and take a breakfast break, munching on some trail mix and beef jerky.

I am glad that I never really ate that much, even when I was back in Montreal. Add that to the extra nourishment I had while in the Capitol and I still feel okay.

What will I do though when my little snacks start to run out? Will I have to learn to hunt? I don't know a thing about hunting like Katniss did! Plus, I'll actually have to kill it myself, skin it, gut it…

_Eww…_

Despite the fact that I have killed two people and possibly three if the wound I gave the District 11 boy on the first day was the cause of his death, the thought of having to kill an animal like that and cook it myself on a bonfire instead of a stove makes me slightly nauseous.

I shake off the feeling and continue down the mountain. Thoughts like these will not help me to survive these Games and I want to survive them so I can beat the shit out of Dominique and Claudette when I get out of here.

Plus the experience I will have gained in this arena will give me more experience to make their demises more… painful.

I snicker to myself as I continue my descent. Let them make what they will of that…

* * *

Finally, I'm back on level ground.

My knees are a bit scratched up and I got some dirt in my eyes and ears, but I'm not that much worse for wear.

Stepping back to get a good look at the mountain before I leave it, I take a deep breath of air.

This would almost be refreshing. _Almost. _If I weren't in the Hunger Games that is.

Shaking myself up a bit and stretching, I move off into the forest, spear raised and one of my knives- a pretty butcher knife type- clutched in the other hand.

BOOM!

I jump, startled.

Another kill. That's about eleven of us dead now right?

Now's not the time to try and remember the death total as I hear the sounds of immediate danger i.e. the sounds of several pairs of feet approaching me along with the sound of a voice I'd never forget.

_Titania._

"That was quite the number you did on the District 3 girl, Gemma!" She says.

I don't stick around to hear more as I take off through the trees.

However, they seem to have heard me as the footsteps continue behind me, speeding up and now hoots and shouts of laughter have joined them.

"Where are you, little Tribute? We're coming to get ya!" A voice I faintly associate with the District 4 male calls out.

I'm certainly not going to tell _you,_ am I?

Picking up even more speed, I see that ahead of me is another female Tribute- the one from District 6, I think.

She watches, stunned as I speed past.

Barely a minute or two after I've passed, I hear her screams and the boom of another cannon.

Somewhere, something inside me feels slightly sorry for leading the Careers to her, but she would have had to die for me to live anyway…

Ahead of me, I see a small cave into which I'd barely be able to fit lying down with all my supplies.

Behind me, I hear the footsteps of the Careers approaching.

I slip right into the space in the tiny cave and pull two rocks in front of it, leaving just the tiniest of cracks which I can peek through.

I see six pairs of feet rush into the small clearing, twisting around as if their owners are turning around to look in all directions.

"You sure you heard 'em go this way, Caspian?" A male voice I don't recognise says.

"_Absolutely,_ Silver. I heard them go in this direction!"

"Well they're obviously not here anymore…" Another male voice I don't recognize says, sounding annoyed.

"You saying I was making it up, Mason?" Caspian says, sounding irritated as well.

The second unfamiliar male voice speaks again. "Well, _maybe…_"

"Knock it off, Mason." Titania's voice cuts him off. "No use arguing. They probably sped off somewhere else. There's nowhere for them to hide around here…"

I hold in a snicker.

"Gemma, you go in front. You've got the pretty arrows. Brooke and I will join you since she's got that fancy fork and I've got throwing knives. Mason, Silver, Caspian, you can cover us in the back…" I'm guessing Titania's the leader of the Career Pack this time around, kinda like how Cato was… _will be_ next year.

Well, it makes sense. She and her District partner Mason were the only two to get tens for their training score…

I wait for what feels like hours after I see their feet disappear, until I decide it's safe to remerge and glance up at the sky while dusting off myself, trying to get my bearings.

It doesn't even look like it is _quite_ afternoon yet, oddly enough. I suppose because I really woke up early and started moving before then, the time flew faster.

Plus my little near-encounter with the Careers…

My heart hasn't even slowed down yet and putting my hand to my chest to steady it doesn't seem to help much…

Taking a few deep breaths and shaking myself to calm down, I decide that it's time to move on again.

And that's when I hear the animal roars and bloodcurdling screams.


	7. Chapter 7

The voice behind the scream sounds familiar so I run towards it, throwing all caution to the wind.

What I see when I reach my destination makes me want to throw up.

Graham is clutched between the jaws of a giant bear with his blood dripping through its jaws. His leg is missing and… _Oh my goodness, is that Graham's intestines I see?_

I hold my hands to my mouth as more of Graham's blood spills out onto the forest floor.

"Graham! GRAHAM!" I scream.

The bear notices me and drops Graham with a thud, deciding that I'm probably a better meal.

I stumble backwards, eyes widening, spear quavering in my hand.

When the cannon booms signalling Graham's death, I almost drop the spear.

The bear runs towards me, roaring and showing off its sharp, bloodied teeth.

Its teeth are dripping blood… _Oh my god, its teeth are dripping blood…_

I'm sure I can feel myself turning green at this point…

Before I can do anything, I feel the ground beneath me begin to shake.

Oh dear god. Just what I need.

An angry bear and an earthquake. Lovely.

I run for cover as a pine tree falls on the bear, crushing its skull and making me throw up slightly at the sight.

Still feeling nauseous, I take off as fast as I can.

I can feel myself huffing and puffing with my heart thudding against my chest as if it's trying to escape my ribcage.

The ground begins to shake even more violently and as it throws me down, I feel something in my right ankle snap.

"AAH!" I tumble to the ground, clutching my ankle.

When a pine tree comes rolling my way, I roll to the side, narrowly missing it but face-planting hard, snapping my nose with a loud crack and my left eye is hurt as well.

Several minutes later, the ground finally becomes still.

The pain of my ankle is the most dominant pain right now as it sears through my leg, feeling as if it's been set on fire.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…" I moan, dragging myself to the nearest cave.

_Maybe something good has come of out of this earthquake,_ I think. _Perhaps some other Tributes were injured like I was…_

I hear another cannon boom. Someone else is dead. Perhaps they were mauled by another animal or a tree squashed their skull, just as it did to that bear…

Trying to ignore the pain all over my body, I assess my supplies situation. Did I lose any?

My grappling hook is battered but probably still useable, but my spear has been broken in half and I lost my sword.

Just dandy. Justdandy.

My other stuff is mostly okay though, thank goodness. My food is a bit crushed, my night-vision goggles are cracked, some of my matches snapped, the flashlight is a dud and I lost a bottle of water when it burst but somehow I managed to hang onto the rest of it- even with all that rolling and tumbling I just did…

The first item I use is the first-aid kit.

Gingerly slipping off my right boot and sock, I hesitate before looking down to examine my right ankle.

Already, it's starting to swell and is turning all colours of the rainbow.

Lovely. Just freaking lovely.

Looking for two pieces of wood that I can use as a leg brace, I put them aside as I rub some pain relieving ointment around the area, wrap it up in a bandage and then fix the makeshift brace around it. I sure hope I did that right…

Then I bandage up my bloodied, broken nose as best as I can. As for my eye…

I touch it gingerly and hiss in pain. Drawing back my fingers, a bit more blood comes off them. If I could see it, I'd guess it's already going black and blue as well- plus I've just realised I can't see a thing through it. Shit…

I simply hold the bottle of cool water against it as a makeshift cooling pack and the swelling and throbbing feeling starts to go down, but not by much.

There's also a varying collection of scrapes, cuts and bruises all over my body that I'm not even sure plastic surgery can fix.

I'm going to go home looking like a damn ragdoll. And to think I loved those kinds of dolls when I was little…

Evening descends on the arena and with it, colder temperatures once again.

My stomach rumbles, reminding me that I haven't eaten since this morning, plus I used some extra energy running around today from the Careers, that bear and the earthquake…

I still feel somewhat queasy, so I slowly eat just one cracker, one piece of beef jerky, one apple slice and about six raisins.

As I'm about to drink some water, the anthem plays and the seal of the Capitol appears.

The District 3 girl, the District 6 girl (who I led the Careers to), Velvet aka District 8 girl and… _Graham_ are gone.

Four more of us are gone…

I wonder how Dagan feels now- and indeed Ceres. Not to mention my District, especially Graham's family…

I began to shake at the thought.

_Four more dead. Four more…_

How many of us dead now is that?

Graham and Velvet were two of the youngest Tributes here in this arena and they're gone…

They lasted longer than Tributes their age would, I guess, but still such young lives cut short so soon to entertain the barbaric Capitol…

I sit against the cave, dragging my supplies with me and wrap myself in the blanket to take some sips of water.

Right. How many of us are dead now?

_One, two, three… _

I keep going until I reach fourteen.

Fourteen gone in the first three days! That's less than how many died in in Katniss' game in the same timeframe I think, but still…

_Fourteen!_

There are actually ten of us left! I've actually survived to the top ten!

Who's left?

All six Careers, _unfortunately…_ I think with a shudder. Then there is me, Kalei, the District 12 girl and the District 7 girl, I think…

Fourteen down and nine to go until one is left.

Seven girls and three boys.

"Ten of us left, nine more to go before the Victor of these games is crowned. I just have to make sure that is me…" I say as I pass out, the throbbing of my leg and my slight nausea searing up again.

* * *

When I wake up, it's already mid-afternoon and I have no clue what day it is.

Throwing the blanket off, I reach down to feel my injured ankle.

It still feels tender to the touch and when I peek beneath the bandages, it still looks red and splotchy.

My eye still feels swollen and tender to the touch and the eye itself as well as the cut beneath it is starting to fill with pus. The cuts, scrapes and bruises I now have are still slightly painful but not as much as before at least…

Then the flashes come. My body feels extremely hot, then extremely cold…

"_Urgh…"_ I moan, clutching my hands to my head as it begins to hurt.

Don't tell me I'm getting sick… Careers could be lurking around the forest now! Plus with only four others to pick off until they must turn on themselves…

The shudders I experience at that thought are probably a combination of my new illness and the thought that they could be coming for me right now.

I try to get up, but I flop back down onto the ground and the pain in my ankle flares up again, making me tumble to the ground, screaming out in pain.

Dragging myself over to one of my packs and the first-aid kit it contains, I inspect what is left in there. There are some bandages, cotton balls, disinfectant, painkiller tablets and pain relieving ointment.

It takes a great effort, but I manage to remove the bandages around my ankle which is still horrid looking, rub some more pain relieving ointment on it and tie fresh bandages on it.

I rub as many cuts on my body as I can with the disinfectant and even though it stings, wipe some of it around my eye as well before making a crude eye patch from cotton balls and a long strip of bandage.

Once that's done, I try to eat some apple slices and raisins, but I vomit everything back out minutes later.

I feel so horrible, I feel as if I can barely move…

_Painkillers… _I manage to force two of those down with some water. My mouth feels really dry and tastes horrible from the vomit…

Layers of dirt are starting to form on me after at least three days of no showers and it feels as if my skin is crawling.

I feel like cockroaches are crawling all over my skin and I hate cockroaches…

The bun my hair was in when I rose into this arena has long since gone and my hair feels filthy and tangled. I can no longer run my fingers straight through it.

I fall into a sort of miserable sleep again and I don't wake up again until it is dark.

What day is it?

Moaning as I sit up, I sip some water and look around.

My sight in my right eye is a bit blurred, but I can still see out of it. I still can't see out of the left one at all.

Everywhere else still hurts like a bitch though…

At home, when I'm feeling ill, my mother always makes me some sort of hot beverage, usually either hot chocolate or peppermint tea. Sometimes even chicken soup helps ease the pain.

It'll take more than chicken soup to get rid of what I've got…

My eye, my ankle, my nose, the mysterious illness I have- probably the effects of not eating properly and the strain of the Games catching up with me…

I start to close my eyes and lean against the side of the cave, when I hear a clinking noise outside.

Shakily grabbing a knife, I stumble forward and am greeted by something hard, hot and metallic dropping on my head.

"_Ow…" _

I blink a bit and then I see what's in my hands.

A metal box attached to a silver parachute.

Wait, _silver parachute?_ Where have I heard about silver parachutes in the Hunger Games before?

It takes a couple minutes for the pieces in my mind to click into place but then…

"A sponsor? I actually have a sponsor?" I say aloud in my awe, though my sick voice probably just makes me sound pitiful.

I tumble back into the depths of my cave to inspect the box.

Opening it, I find a tureen of warm chicken soup, a small bowl and a spoon.

Hands shaking slightly, I manage to pour out some of the soup into the bowl and take tiny spoonfuls.

Immediately, warmth begins to spread through me and this time, in a good way.

"This is good… My thanks to whoever sent this!" I smile weakly.

There. They must be pissing their pants at this weak shout-out…

Hopefully I live to meet them when I have to do that District tour…

Wait… District tour? No, I plan on getting out of Panem as soon as I win this!

But if I leave, what will become of my District?

No… I don't need that kind of thinking. This isn't my District. I'm not from here.

I'm not Violette Gardner from District 9 of Panem! I am Violette Gardner of Montréal, Quebec, Canada!

Shaking my head to clear of its thoughts, I try to focus on the task at hand- eating more of this _wonderful _chicken soup.

* * *

In the morning, I feel remarkably better. I guess chicken soup _does_ have healing properties after all…

Stretching and yawning, I sit up and examine my ankle again.

Still hurts, but it hurts much less than it did before.

Using the last of the bandages and pain relieving ointment on it, I gingerly slip on the sock and boot again.

It hurts for my ankle to be inside enclosed shoes like this in this condition, but surely it's better than walking around barefoot in this arena. Suppose they make the ground poisonous or something? I wouldn't put it past them…

I hold the cold water bottle to my injured eye for a few minutes and then rub a bit more disinfectant around it. The stinging is less, but I still can't see through it… Have I gone _permanently_ blind?

Finishing up the last of the chicken soup for breakfast, I decide it's time for me to move on once again.

Clutching two knives in each hand, I venture forward, shifting my pack slightly (everything I have left can now fit into the larger pack alone…) and listening for any indication that another Tribute or a wild animal is nearby.

Hearing none, I leave the cave and limp out into the wilderness.

What feels like hours later and when the sun is high in the sky, I still hear nothing and see nothing. This is good, yet bad.

Good, because it means the other Tributes are probably shaken up from yesterday's earthquake as well, bad because whenever there's calm, there's _always_ a storm afterwards.

_Always._

Like the situation that lead to my being here for instance.

What feels like months ago, my friends and I used to make Claudette's life a living hell. We teased her about her acne, her weight, her height, her hair…

Come on, Claudette was a walking wreck! No normal looking teenage girl should look as… _horrid_ as she did! Plus she always acted weird. Never socialised with anyone- didn't even have one friend among the other outcasts, spent more time in the library than Hermione Granger…

Sometime afterwards, she kinda flew under our radar. My guess is that bit by bit, slowly but surely, she was beginning to crack under the pressure. Shows how _weak _she was…

Therefore, the evil bitch princess went off to plot her revenge with the evil bitch queen in their evil tower of doom somewhere in one of the creepier parts of Montreal. They get together, mixing their evil, poisonous potion brews in their cauldrons and use their freaky powers to banish people into books.

I wonder how many other victims they have had. Surely some missing persons cases in Montreal and who knows, the world over could have been caused by them- and others like them.

Now there's a scary thought...

_Others like them._

There could be people with the power to manipulate books like that. Suppose they sent some Jewish person into Nazi Germany and black people to the Southern United States during slavery? Just dropped someone they didn't like into the middle of some big conflict somewhere?

Dominique said something about not affecting the odds of these Games. But couldn't she alter history itself by sending people into non-fiction history books?

Why don't people know about people like this? Are they part of some secret society like the Illuminati? Was J.K. Rowling onto something when she wrote about a hidden Wizarding World? Were Dominique and Claudette not really French, but were a pair of witches from another planet like in Winx Club?

The possibilities were so many, it was mind-boggling.

I shook my head to clear it. I need to focus on the task at hand.

_Surviving._

Keeping on walking. Keep on walking Violette.

Or as my right ankle decides to remind me at that moment- keep on limping…

I lean against a pine tree to take a break even though the pines still prick me through the jacket. It's starting to wear out…

Just like me.

I'm starting to feel myself slip away in here. It's like my brain is floating away and I can't quite catch it, like I'm trying to reach out and grab a piece of cloud…

I start giggling like a madman even though there's nothing to laugh about. Perhaps I really am losing it in here…

_My sanity must remain intact… Keep my mind clear…_ So I can beat the shit out of Dominique and Claudette for sending me here in the first place…

"I say we go over there!" I hear the voice of Gemma in the distance.

Oh no. Not _them_ again…

I turn around frantically, looking for a place to hide. There are no caves nearby or large rocks to conceal myself behind…

My eyes begin to widen and I begin to hyperventilate. I'll never be able to run away quickly enough with this blasted ankle of mine!

Unless… I gaze up at the nearest tree, which for once wasn't a pine tree, but what looks like an oak.

Are they good to climb? Can I make it up there before they get here?

"I don't care. We're going over here!" I hear Brooke's voice next.

Who cares? I've got to try!

Even though climbing trees is much more difficult and painful with a fractured ankle which hasn't been tended to properly, I manage to make it up high enough to be hidden from sight in a cluster of branches, a knife clutched in each hand just in case.

"There's no one over there, Gemma! Everyone's been hidden since that earthquake that took out two people two days ago!"

Ah. So it's Day 5. Yesterday was Day 4 and no-one died then apparently...? Thanks for the time-check and update, Brooke!

I blink as the District 1 and 4 girls come into view some distance away from my tree.

They look just as battered as I am. District 4 still has that lethal trident of hers though. Lucky bitch.

"I need another kill! Ten of us left and no one has died for two days?!" Gemma exclaimed.

Brooke's tone changes as she speaks and I can see her starting to twitch as if getting annoyed with her fellow Career.

Gemma doesn't seem to notice the danger signs though…

_Someone's_ about to die here…

"No one has died for two days, huh? How about we change that?" She twirls her trident and I can see Gemma's eyes widen as what Brooke says sinks in.

She strings up her bows and turns around to fire them at the same time Brooke throws her trident.

It's like some sort of epic movie moment in slow motion and I'm sure that the Capitol citizens as well as residents of Districts 1 and 4 are leaning forward in their seats…

Both arrow and trident have made impact in their respective targets though one does much, _much_ more damage and is more accurate.

The cannon booms as Gemma's body falls to the ground with a thud, blonde hair splayed around her head and eyes wide with Brooke's trident embedded in her chest.

Brooke smirks as she pulls the arrow from her right shoulder and tosses it aside.

"I guess this alliance is over and the odds _certainly_ weren't in your favour, _Gemma…_" She snickers as she walks off twirling her trident and blows on it, like a smoking gun.

I need to get down from here. They won't be able to get the body until I clear out.

But wait!

Those are some mighty pretty arrows…

Do I pull a Katniss and retrieve the archery set from the District 1 female's dead body?

I was always bemoaning my lack of a long range weapon- especially when I came up against that bear a few days ago…

Am I good enough to use them though?

Oh what the hell. Might as well try a thing here...

Moving down as quickly as I can- considering my ankle and all, I quickly liberate the bow and arrows from Gemma's body.

At least she wasn't as bloated as Glimmer will be when Katniss sets the Tracker Jackers on her…

Hold up.

I just touched a dead body to get these. I just _touched_ a dead body. Touched a freaking _corpse_ to get these.

That's freaking _disgusting!_

Okay, self. Now's not the time to go green…

Dusk begins to fall as I find another cave and I pull two large rocks and a few fallen branches in front of it to hide myself, making it look as if there's nothing but mountain around.

Certainly nowhere around that a lowly District 9 female Tribute could hide from ferocious Careers who have probably broken their alliance, _hehehehe…_

The arena gets even colder than before as the darkness finally settles and the Capitol seal flashes in the sky once again.

Gemma's picture is displayed in the night sky for all to see.

Fifteen down, eight left to kill.

Fifteen Tributes dead, nine Tributes remain alive.

I'm still alive; the District 1 boy is still alive, both Tributes from Districts 2 and 4 are still alive…

District 7 girl, me, Kalei and the District 12 girl. Wow, District 12 actually lasted pretty long in these Games…

Hell, _I_ did. Who knew a girl like me would possibly survive this long?

I don't like being hungry, I hate being sweaty and filthy for long, I hate gore, yet I've killed two, possibly three fellow Tributes in these Games so far…

See that, Dominique? Claudette, even though I haven't seen your ugly mug around here yet, you see me now?

I deserve this, huh? Well you two deserve the ass-kicking I'm going to give you two when I get out of here, you'll see!

I begin to laugh madly again as my stringy, knotty hair falls around my face and I'm sure by now my dark blue eyes have lost their shine. I must look like a madwoman but I don't care.

I don't care anymore. I just don't care, _hehehehehe…_

_We'll see who can't survive a Hunger Games!_


	8. Chapter 8

Another day gone, another day closer to getting the hell out of this horrid place.

That's my first thought on waking up and peeking out between the two large rocks I had dragged in front of the entrance to the cave I was now in. Sunlight streamed in, yet it was still as cold as ever. I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature was in the negatives now…

Bastards.

I dragged myself up properly, which is not an easy feat when you're feeling as stiff as a board. Plus the damn leg…

At least it doesn't hurt like before…

I look for breakfast with the supplies that I have after using one of my remaining matches to light a fire.

I zip up my coat, draw on the gloves and wrap myself in the blanket even tighter than before, but it's still freezing. I imagine that the North Pole might have a similar climate.

How the hell does Santa Claus stand living up there anyway? Why doesn't he move somewhere warm like Florida or southern France or something?

My stomach decides to remind me then that I need food, so I assess what's left.

It isn't much.

I have a lot of the sugar cubes left since I haven't really had much taste for those (especially as sugar tends to make me more thirsty), the trail mix is three quarters gone, there are half a dozen crackers, three slices of apple, four slices of jerky and no more raisins.

If this thing drags out, I will need more food.

Not to mention my water supply is starting to get dire. I lost one of the two bottles I had on the day that Graham died and what was left in that bottle was already one-quarter gone.

Plus my little illness. When I get sick, I tend to drink a lot. Add in the fact that I was throwing up and needed to make up for the water my body lost during those episodes…

I'll need to find water. I haven't seen any lakes around, plus I haven't been near any of the snow-capped mountains I saw to try and melt some of the snow there to drink…

Also, who isn't to say that they haven't poisoned the snow too? The only food sources that you can fully trust in here are those you get from the Cornucopia and from your sponsors.

Everything else could either kill you in seconds or draw out your agony over hours and days.

I had no desire to find out which would happen if I ate something unfamiliar.

Six days, six days I've been locked in this madhouse…

I begin to rock back and forth, hugging myself as I eat as little as I can without feeling like I'm starving myself.

It takes a lot of restraint, but I have not wolfed down the lot.

If my supplies are running low, that means others are starting to run low on supplies.

What I know from experience is that hungry people are angry people and this is the Hunger Games after all.

They want us to start getting angry and cranky and bring about another Bloodbath.

I wonder if they're getting bored already…

That's a scary thought…

They would start driving us together again as our supplies run low. Perhaps even host a feast like they will in the next Games…

I'm in no shape right now to attend a feast though. Sure I might have done well at the Cornucopia, but I was uninjured and healthy at that point. Plus the fact that five of six Careers would certainly show up…

Once I was done eating, I shrugged off my jacket and folded my blanket around myself in a way that would form an extra layer before replacing the jacket. It helped me feel a bit warmer, but not by much. I could do with a hat and a scarf.

I paused. Okay, maybe the scarf wasn't such a good idea. Someone could try to strangle me with it after all…

After the small breakfast, I repack my small amount of supplies, adjust my weapons belt, ready my archery set and remove the rope in the backpack and swung it around my right shoulder. I never really had cause to use it before, but who knows? Today might be the day!

Carefully moving aside the rocks, I walk outside cautiously. The fractured ankle still huts when I walk on it, but it's a pain that I can now start to ignore. My left eye is still blind and my nose tender to the touch though…

I might be able to stand a chance if I came up against any of the non-Careers in this state but I'd definitely be slaughtered if the Careers found me first…

And I haven't found much material for camouflage out here either, if there's nowhere for me to climb or a cave for me to hide in. I've been very lucky in that regard thus far, but these Gamemakers aren't bastards for nothing. They'll see me getting comfortable and decide to send another earthquake or make it even colder than it already is…

It's afternoon by the time I stop walking around and my legs are getting tired so I decide to lean against a pine tree and catch a breather.

Across from me is a bush of what looks like blueberries. They look so good and I feel so thirsty…

_**No! **_

I clutch the sides of my head, shaking it vigorously. "No, No, No, No, _**No!**_ This could be some sort of evil trick! Suppose they aren't really blueberries but some evil poisonous fruit I've never seen?" I know that much about plants. I'm not eating something I can't identify- especially considering my current environment…

There is a sound nearby so I immediately straighten up and string up an arrow, sweeping it all around.

A coyote leaps from the bushes and I narrowly manage to side-step it. But those teeth…

Those teeth are not normal looking coyote teeth. They look like miniature white daggers…

A muttation perhaps? I wouldn't be surprised at this…

Shooting an arrow, I manage to get it in one of its hind legs, but it turns back at me, looking unaffected.

"Damn it…"

For a girl with a fractured ankle, I can run surprisingly fast. I guess you really can do anything if your life depends on it, like I've been doing so far.

I mean, killing two people I'm certain about, evading Careers? Would I have been able to do something like that if I were being chased by an angry bear or a serial killer back in Montreal?

I certainly don't think so…

Focus on getting away from the coyote with the freaky teeth, Violette. You can figure out a way to get home once you win this thing…

Kill some more people…

Win this thing…

I trip and fall abruptly over a tree root. _Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…_

I wouldn't be surprised if they put that there on purpose, like they did with the flaming tree in the Hunger Games movie…

Turning over to see the coyote snarling and ropes of saliva hanging from its jaws, I shudder.

My blood will accompany that saliva soon if I don't do something…

I can't shoot it from this angle. Why couldn't I have been an archery pro like Katniss?!

It lunges for me at the same time I reach for a knife and…

Whoa. I had no idea that throats could squirt that much blood… I'm sputtering here under the spray and have to shake myself off after I managed to slash its throat.

I'm coughing as well and wiping coyote blood from my eyes. Its blood burns. Horribly.

"_Dammit!"_ I howl, stomping my good foot on the forest floor, then putting my hands to my mouth.

Did someone hear me? I sure hope not…

The blood is starting to feel like acid and I begin to run madly in one direction hoping that there's something, anything that can get rid of the pain I feel, as if I'm being cremated alive…

The ground below me feels different as I run, but I barely notice it through the pain I'm currently feeling. It feels… _slippery_ somehow. Mud perhaps?

But where there's mud, there's… WATER! Cool, sweet water!

I open my eyes and see a lake ahead of me. It's slightly frozen, but still. A lake!

Water! Perhaps I can wash off this blood there!

Once I'm there, I dunk myself fully into the water more times than Naaman ever had to, ignoring the cold now joining the burning pain. Surely cold must be better than this burning I feel, right?

After a few minutes of torture, the pain lessens. The pain lessens. The acid blood is gone…

I wipe off my face with some more water and even wash my hair as best as I can.

Despite the fact that I'm freezing now more than ever, I'm clean!

I haul myself out of the lake and the chill hits me hard, making my teeth chatter. At least the acid blood is gone!

Then I take a look at my skin and have to bite back a horrified scream.

My skin… It looks like I'm a fire victim! It looks like I've got burns all over! Chemical burns maybe, from the blood?

How the hell do they manage to fill a coyote with acidic blood that can cause so much pain?

If I killed the coyote and this was the result, are any of the animals in this arena safe?

Wait. I just answered my own question. I'm in the Hunger Games. _Nothing _is safe here.

I hug myself tighter in a futile bid to dispel the chill that's threatening to give me brain freeze.

Oh my god, the cold is starting to _really_ hit me now…

I cough violently. The cold's really rattling around my insides…

Great. Free of one type of discomfort, only to land myself into the opposite spectrum of extreme sensation. From hot to cold- and I ain't talking about a Katy Perry song either…

An axe suddenly comes whizzing past my head as if the person who threw it wanted to scalp me.

"_Which they probably did…" _I thought, as I turned around to see the District 7 girl standing there, looking pissed at that fact that she narrowly missed beheading me.

She throws a knife and I dodge that too.

Rushing towards her now that I see that she's weapon less, I throw a kick with my good leg that floors her.

She tries to get up again, but I jump onto her back, eliciting a cry of pain from her.

"You want to kill me, huh? You wanted to chop off my head like you chop the little trees in District 7?" I glance at the rope which is still around my shoulder.

I haven't used it yet…

Oh, why not?

Despite the fact that she's struggling, I manage to get the rope around her neck and pull tight, keeping my knees in her back.

Despite her hands being free, she can't seem to grab me as all she does is flail wildly, trying to escape, begging for mercy with the little breath she has…

"You tried to use me as target practice for your axe throwing skills and you want my _mercy?_" I say incredulously.

Bitch please.

I only tighten the rope's grip around her neck.

Soon enough, she starts turning blue and it's not long after that that she stops moving and the cannon signals another death.

I did it! I killed another person! In an unnecessarily brutal fashion, yes. But still…

One person out of my way to getting home!

Another life to feel guilty about taking…

But… Another person out of my way!

Eight of us left! I've made it to the final eight!

I take her small pack and rummage through it to see what's there.

Not much. A half-filled pack of berries, socks and...

Another bottle! It might be empty, but I can fill it with water! And what are these little tablets?

Are those water purification tablets?

I examine the package more closely.

_Yes, they are!_ Score!

I giggle madly as I fill the second bottle with water from the lake and drop one tablet in it as per the instructions on the packet.

Gulping down the water left in my first bottle, I quickly fill that one up and drop a tablet in there too before running off quickly so they can get District 7 girl's body.

Once I've made it a safe distance away, I shake my head, trying to clear it, but I have no such luck.

Voices keep coming through my head, voices screaming. Fellow Tributes screaming and pleading for their lives and crying right before their life ends.

"_No…"_ I lean against a tree and moan.

_Focus,_ Violette! You have a family and friends to get home to. Keep your mind on seeing them again!

I feel for my District token around my neck. I haven't looked at it or even touched it very often and somehow; it's withstood every fight and tumble that came my way since the Games started.

It's tough. It's a survivor.

Just like I should be.

There are only seven people in my way to winning this right now. Imagine that.

They will be airing those final eight interviews now, I think. Katniss mentioned something like that in Catching Fire. They go back to your District and let their reporters do some personal story shit about you. They talk to your friends and family, trying to get a picture of who you are (or at least _were_ before the Games got hold of you…).

I wonder how the District 9 version of my family and Ginger are doing. Are they holding up well for the cameras?

If this were back home, my father, Louis and Ginger would certainly do the best job of it, but I'm honestly not sure of my mother. She's always been a happy-go-lucky, cheerful person from what I remember growing up with her as my mother.

Has this world broken this version of my mother though? I certainly do hope that she doesn't become another Mrs Everdeen if I die…

And what about mom back in Montreal? She must be worried out her mind for me! Not to mention, Gina, Melissa and Ginger's families…

I clutch the sides of my head and shake it again.

Focus, Violette Gardner. Eight of you Tributes left, seven in your way until you can go home and hug your family again.

When I get back, I'll make sure they know I love them.

_Right after I make sure that Dominique and Claudette have paid for what they did to us…_

* * *

Dark comes before I can find a place to hole up tonight so I slip on my night-vision goggles.

They make my left eye feel weird due to its injury and what I can see out of the right one is affected by a slight crack from the tumbling I did on the day of the earthquake.

Still, it's better than nothing.

Better than groping around in this darkness without being able to see…

From what I can see at the moment, there are no caves for me to hide in nearby. In the first few days I got lucky finding places to stay like that, but no such luck.

I may have to try sleeping in a tree this time like Katniss will do in her Games.

Now to find an appropriate tree…

_BOOM!_

I make a noise as I'm startled and look around wildly to see if anyone heard. I sure am getting rather jumpy now…

Eight minus one equals seven. Seven left. Seven of us left.

Six more to wipe out before I can go back to District 9 and figure out how I'm going to get out of Panem.

This killing thing… It seems to get a little easier every time I do it. I mean, I don't actually like doing it, but if someone threatens me, I will. I'm not a Career. I don't go out deliberately looking for people to slaughter…

"_That doesn't excuse what you're doing, does it, Violette?" _The voices tell me.

"_Oh, shut up." _I tell them as I've finally found a nice, thick oak tree to nestle myself in.

Once I'm up as high as I can manage comfortably, I strap myself in the sleeping bag as best as I can and munch on one slice of apple and a sugar cube.

The nightly update on the deaths appears in the sky and I see that in addition to the District 7 girl whom I strangled, the District 4 girl was also killed. Guess she was the one that was killed when the canon boomed in the dark.

I wonder if Gemma's District partner was the one who killed her. He might have found out that Brooke was the one who killed her. Who knows?

What feels like hours after that, I finally sink into my own darkness.

* * *

I wake up suddenly the next day and the first thing I notice is that it's colder than it's ever been before in the arena.

Apparently, we've moved from the North Pole to Antarctica, the coldest place in the world.

Or at least _my _world…

My teeth begin to chatter noisily as I try and fail to adjust to the temperature drop.

As I blink, I see something cold and white fall onto my nose.

Trying to adjust to the light of a new day, I finally realise what it is as more of it lands on me.

Snow!

It's snowing!

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

_Holy shit…_

This is going to make things harder…

I'll have to avoid leaving footprints in the snow, find more ways to get warm…

At least they won't let us freeze to death. I hear bloodless deaths are very unpopular in the Capitol.

I take my time getting down the tree as it's been made slippery by the snow, making the descent harder than it already is.

Pulling my garments close doesn't do as much good as it did before when it got cold since for one thing, they're more worn down and another thing, this temperature is the coldest I've ever felt in this arena- in my life…

Maybe everyone else will freeze to death and I can go back to District 9. My luck isn't that good though. If it were, I wouldn't be in these Games in the first place, now would I?

The snow finally stops falling a few hours later. By then, everything I can see looks like a winter wonderland.

"_A deadly winter wonderland…"_ I think.

The snow is above my ankles, but I'm making good movement without slipping or being impeded by it and it's like a continuous ice pack for my ankle.

I even reach down to touch it and as I rub some of its flakes between my fingers, it melts, wetting my gloves slightly.

Taking great care to conceal my tracks, I try to find another place to hole up and get warm again before I get hypothermia. I never did like cold weather- despite living in Canada…

I can barely see the sun in this cloudy sky so I can't even estimate what time of day it is.

As I go, I begin to cough violently again. This is what happens to me when I get too cold for my liking. I cough and my insides feel like they're rattling around.

But eventually, I find another cave to hole up in.

At last, _at long last,_ I've found another cave. Caves really have helped me out a lot in these Games. I owe my life to caves several times over…

Before I go in, I grab the twigs and other things I'll need for a bonfire, getting as many of them as I can.

I also find two pieces of flint that I can ignite the fire with. Good. Now that Jack Frost has decided to put in an appearance, I'll need to save the matches and use them wherever necessary.

It's a good thing I've found this cave too, for as soon as I've set up my fire deep down in the cave where I can barely see its entrance from, the snow starts falling again, and this time it's even heavier than before.

Minutes later, it's a full-fledged blizzard and I have to go deeper into the cave as the snow starts blowing in quite a lot.

Hours afterwards, I went closer to the front of the cave to see how the snow was doing.

Wow. The snow covered half the entrance to the cave. It would take a bit of digging to get out of here again…

Damn you, snow. Damn you to hell!

As I'm grumbling to myself, I hear a clinking noise above me and look up to see a silver parachute descending towards me with a larger box than the last time.

At least this time it doesn't conk me on the head…

I open it up to see a newer version of the coat I have now, a medium sized flask of hot chocolate and dinner rolls just like the ones in the Capitol.

Whoa. If I'm getting generous sponsors like this, do people out there actually think I have a chance of winning even though there are still four Careers left?

I take my latest sponsorship items further into the cave where my bonfire is, giving a salute and a thank you to the camera I'm sure is on me now.

I take off my boots and old socks, looking at my red injured ankle and slip on the socks I got from the District 7 girl, shrug off the old jacket and put on the new one, zipping it up tightly.

As I take a small sip from the hot chocolate, I smile to myself.

I guess I really do have a chance of winning this thing after all, don't I?

* * *

**_Come on people, review! I'd really like to hear from everyone who has this on author's alert/favourites!_**


	9. Chapter 9

Last night, on the snow-filled day, no-one died.

Everyone must have run for cover from the snow. Everyone must be trying to get warm.

I glance out.

It's not pure ice out there, but damn, that was a lot of snow that fell yesterday.

The snow is still halfway up the entrance to the cave so when I want to leave, I'll have to dig my way out.

I glance down at my hands, covered in gloves that are worn down.

_BOOM!_

Another death. I wouldn't be surprised if someone had died from hypothermia or something else related to this snow…

After all, not everyone got a nice, warm jacket and hot chocolate, did they?

I smile to myself. The sponsorship I'm getting is really helping me out here. I'm sure if I didn't get the soup a few days ago and the hot chocolate last night, I would be dead by now.

And the risk I took going to the Cornucopia. I'd be significantly less comfortable if I didn't go there. And I'd pretty much be dead. After all, I got most of the weapons and other things I've been using from there…

I keep on thinking as I set up another fire to get warm and have my breakfast by.

I am a pretty good looking Tribute- or at least I was before the Hunger Games worked its stuff on me... I had a decent parade costume and interview outfit. I carried myself well in the interview. I had an eight as a training score- a score which many Careers have gotten over the years.

Three confirmed deaths and possibly another if the District 11 boy's death came about because of me. I lasted this long. To the final eight. I managed to evade Careers multiple times to get to this spot.

I must be looking pretty attractive right now…

Who knew that a fangirl who grew up in a nice upper middle class neighbourhood in Montreal could make it this far in a fight to the death? Certainly no one would expect that of the mean cheerleader…

I guess I'll just have to prove that cheerleaders aren't always pathetic airheads. Sure some of us have a mean streak with some having broader streaks than others, but we're not all that bad…

Claudette didn't seem to think so when she got her aunt to help her put me, Ginger, Melissa and Gina into this world…

Was I really that bad?

I shook my head as I moved what was left of the now _cold _chocolate from last night closer to the fire in an effort to get it to warm up.

I also take out a dinner roll and toast it along with a slice of jerky.

No, I wasn't that bad. If Claudette couldn't handle a few mean comments, then what the hell is she doing in a high-class private high school?

Why is she not home-tutored then? If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen!

Though… was the heat really needed in this case?

Did I go too far?

I remember this one time, Ginger and I were on our way to cheerleading practice just after school was dismissed.

Claudette came walking down the hallway with her backpack full of books and her arm full of books as well.

What the hell was she doing with that many books at one time anyway? Trying to outdo Hermione Granger?

Anyway, I can remember Ginger and I smirking at one another before I put out my foot and she tripped over it, sending both her books and her long, flappy skirt into the air.

She looked pretty mortified as most people around started laughing hysterically…

Okay, I'd have been pissed if someone did that to me too, but what the hell gave her the right to make me into a Tribute? That's like saying that just because you have an issue with one or two people, you go get a gun and shoot up an entire school like I keep hearing about in the United States!

Then again, Claudette seems to have restricted her revenge to us at least… At least she didn't send the whole school into Panem… _did she?_

She's still sick in the head though. Really, _really_ sick. Why the hell would you do that? I don't want to die, but if I do, I hope I can go back as a ghost and haunt her for the rest of her life! Maybe like the ghosts in Danny Phantom. That would be pretty cool…

"Okay, V. _Focus. _Get your head in the game!" I said.

I snickered. High School Musical 2…

"Stop that, Violette!" I exclaim, shaking my head again, clutching my hands to the sides of my head.

The screams from other Tributes are back inside my head and this time, they're joined by the pleads from the District 7 girl.

They're so loud, pounding against the walls of my head: throwing my brain around in there like it's some sort of ball.

It hurts. My head hurts! Too much noise!

I curl up in a ball beside my fire and whimper, rocking back and forth as I run my district token through my fingers.

Home… I need to go home…

I want to go home… I need to go… I can't take it here anymore. _Mommy, I want to go home…_

I can feel tears starting to come on, but then another voice sounds out in my head, cancelling out the others.

A nicer voice.

A memory.

My mother talking to me in the Justice Building just before the Peacekeepers came to take my family away after I was Reaped.

"_Remember that we all love you, okay? Don't just fight for us, fight for District 9!" _

My mom said that. My mother did. She was encouraging me to win.

Weakness. Weakness will not help me to win these Games. Weakness will not get me sponsors.

I sit up, wiping away tears that are barely there, even though I can feel them building up inside of me. I will have plenty of time to let it all out once I win these Games.

I stand up, shaking myself off and readjusting my weapons belt. I packed up the rest of my supplies and simply sat against the wall near the fire, hoping to get a little more warmth in my bones, fiddling with the archery set in my hands as I did so.

It doesn't work. I still feel cold.

I hold an arrow above the flames watching its tip heat up and turn a little red before a voice comes.

And this time, it's not inside my head.

Trumpets are blared first and then Claudius Templesmith's voice booms down from overhead, congratulating all six of us that remain.

He's calling us to a feast. He's the first voice I've heard that's not another Tribute in this arena.

He's calling us to a feast at the Cornucopia this afternoon!

I glance down at my supplies. A new chance to stock up on more food and more weapons!

But wait! The Careers will be there!

No, no, no. I can't be scared of them now.

I make my way over to the entrance of the cave and dig my way through the snow with my bare hands. Well not really bare since I'm wearing gloves but still…

I can't be scared of anyone. I've murdered three, potentially four Tributes in here. Why should I be scared of anyone if I can take a life that easily?

Let's hope they don't take my life as easily…

* * *

I am in the trees surrounding the Cornucopia, eyeing it wearily.

I could die if I go out there.

_I could die if I go out there…_

I already risked it at the beginning of the Games and got away due to sheer luck, but this… Will I get lucky a second time? With Tributes like Titania and the other Careers there?

Is it too much to hope that one of them died when the canon boomed this morning?

There is a strange sound coming from near the Cornucopia as the ground directly in front of it begins to shake.

I pop a sugar cube in my mouth, hoping for a little sugar-induced energy to help me through this thing.

Soon enough, from the shaking, snow-covered ground emerges a large, banquet style table and a few smaller ones, all covered in light blue cloth.

On top of them are a wide array of weapons, food supplies, blanket rolls and more backpacks of various sizes.

I could do with a fresh blanket. My jacket that I got from a sponsor is helpful against the cold, but I could do with a nice, thick blanket…

Running as fast as I can on an injured ankle, I head straight for the feast, no other thoughts in my mind.

From the corner of my right eye, I see the District 11 girl- Kalei- reach the tables ahead of me, grabbing two swords, a bag of apples, one of the larger packs and a blanket, stuffing everything she can into the backpack.

She looks in pretty decent shape compared to me at least…

Suddenly, Mason- the District 2 male- zooms in out of nowhere and throws a knife at her, which she deflects with a sword.

Holy shit. It's like watching some action movie. No wonder she got a nine! I can certainly see how she earned it now! The Careers had made her an offer and but she turned them down. Now she's fighting off one of them and doing what looks like a good job of it…

Just as I'm grabbing a pack, I'm thrown down to the ground, face first, breathing in snow, which makes me choke and sputter.

I feel something swinging towards my head and I manage to roll away before it lands.

When I look around, I see Titania standing above where I just was, picking up a rather large rock.

She has a weapons belt like mine, although her knives are more plentiful in amount and in better shape. Plus that sword in her other hand…

I load up my bow and fire an arrow and shoot, but it gets her in the left arm.

Titania yanks it out, looking unaffected by that.

She looks mighty different from when I last saw her at the start of the Games. She has scratches all over her body as if several wild animals attacked her, she has a cut above her right eye and her hair makes her look like Bellatrix Lestrange in its current wild, matted state.

"Hello there, District 9!" She throws a knife and narrowly misses.

She also follows that up with the rock she tried to bash my head in with but that also misses.

Out of the corner of my good eye, I can see that Kalei has managed to wound Mason with what looks like a scimitar and he's retreated for now with a smaller pack and a blanket. With that cut she gave him, I'm not sure he'd last more than a day or two. His blood is trailing behind him in the snow…

"Hello there, District 2!" I call back, shooting another arrow. This time it gets her in the knee.

Heheheheheh. _Arrow to the knee…_

She takes it out again and this time, I can see it's affected her as she starts to limp as the knee starts to bleed out into the snow…

"I don't plan on letting you win this thing, you know…" She twirls around and throws another knife, but before I can react, this one lands.

Not in my chest where she was aiming for, but in my shoulder.

I scream out in pain, clutching my shoulder, dragging out the embedded knife and the pain throws me off for a minute as my eyes close tightly.

I've barely had time to process my bloodied hand and shoulder when she's at me again, throwing me back into the snow covered ground, this time with my back on the ground, knocking the air out of me and pinning down my left hand.

"Looks like that eight you got in your training score won't do you much good here, District 9. Still, you've lasted longer than a lot of Tributes from your neck of the woods…" She pins me down and reaches for what looks like a butcher's knife.

_Oh crap…_

"How many people have you killed?" She asks me casually.

I make a motion as if to shrug. "Three. Possibly 4. Not sure about one of 'em. Didn't stick around to see if the wound I gave him was the cause of his death, you see…"

_Don't go out acting like a wimp…_

_Don't beg for mercy…_

"Not bad. I've killed three others myself. The District 5 girl and the boys from Districts 6 and 12…" She twirls around her knife.

Hm. These Career Tributes seem to have a bad habit of playing with their prey before they actually kill it. It will be Clove's downfall in the next Games. Let's just hope it is Titania's downfall as well…

"I killed the boys from Districts 3 and 5 plus the girl from District 7. The boy from District 11? Who knows?" I ask calmly, as if we're merely discussing the latest fashions back in Montreal.

"Who knows indeed... What's your name again? _Violette,_ isn't it? Pretty flower. Pretty colour too. Who knew that such a pretty little flower like you could be so lethal?"

Something has shifted in her eyes.

Despite speaking relatively calmly, her eyes are gleaming with excitement.

She's about to deliver a death blow.

"Well, it's been nice chatting with you, but I have a Games to win…" She raises up the knife.

At the same time she brings it down towards my chest, I smash a snowball I managed to craft with my free right hand directly into her face.

It misses my chest but then I feel a searing pain around my waist. The knife certainly didn't miss there…

I struggle up and push her over, but not before she punches me in the face blindly while trying to get the snow and ice out of her eyes and nose. I react blindly myself by stabbing somewhere on her that I cannot properly see through blood dripping over my right eye.

My nose is broken once again. Blood starts pouring out of it again and I can taste the rusty taste of blood in my mouth again.

I cough violently and I feel two teeth fly out of my mouth.

Trying to rub all the blood off my face only results in me getting more blood in my eyes so I give that up, grabbing up my old backpack off the ground, another larger pack off the table, along with a pair of butterfly swords and a new blanket roll.

I take one look behind me and see the boys of Districts 1 and 4 fighting it out viciously while Titania sweeps the table of as much stuff as she can.

All of us are leaving behind blood trails as we leave. Some more than others, but still, the pristine, white snow of the arena is blood-stained today. You can never have a feast without bloodshed after all…

I might not have gotten out of this fight with just minor scratches, but at least I came out of it at all and I'm sure I can live to fight again once I find a place to recover.

* * *

What feels like hours later, I come to the icy lake that I had encountered the District 7 girl at two days ago.

I've lost a good amount of blood and if I don't staunch its flow soon, I'm pretty sure I'll bleed to death.

Laying my packs, weapons and blankets on the snow covered banks of the lake, I also remove my jacket and step slowly into the water unlike what I did last time.

I see the blood flowing out of my body and merging with the water of the lake. It's certainly not bound to fully heal injuries such as these, but I'm hoping to at least patch them up enough to get out of here.

I giggle as I swirl my fingers around in the mixture of blood and water around my injured shoulder.

Gathering a few handfuls of water, I splash them into my face, wiping off the blood there.

The cold seeps into my body soon afterwards and I start to feel it going to my brain.

I'm going to develop hypothermia if I stay in here much longer so I slowly drag myself out of the lake.

I haven't stopped bleeding fully yet, but I have managed to slow it down and I won't leave much of a trail at this rate.

Good.

I gather up my things and look for somewhere else to shelter where I can give myself better first aid.

* * *

Night comes and with it, I find myself lying in a tree once again.

It certainly wasn't easy getting this high in a tree- or getting into any tree at all with such injuries, but when you're determined to live, you're determined to live. You can do anything if your life depends on it, I find…

As I'm rubbing disinfectant on my fresh wounds and trying to ignore the stinging _that_ brings, I see the nightly update in the sky after the anthem plays.

Hm. Looks like District 4 boy lost his fight with the District 1 boy. There's one less Career to deal with at least…

The District 12 girl is also gone. What do you know? The District 12 girl is _actually gone…_

Another District completely wiped out. District 4 is out of this Hunger Games completely and now District 12 is as well.

Katniss says that District 12's Tributes don't normally last that long in the Games, but this one has.

When I saw her Reaping, she was just some scrawny looking kid. A scrawny looking kid that managed to survive this long without sponsors, probably.

I wonder what finally did her in. Or even _who _did her in…

But she's gone now.

Another life, gone out like a candle in a hurricane breeze. Not a chance of surviving.

I giggle to myself. The pain I'm currently experiencing brings on a fresh wave of voices.

"_Look at that, Violette! Another two people out of your way! Isn't it great?" _

"_Five of you left! Only four must die now for you to live!"_

"_Yeah, three more Careers to deal with!"_

"_Not to mention that District 11 girl. Kalei, we think her name is?"_

"_**Go away…" **_I moan, holding my hands to my head.

"_How can we go away, Violette? We're all in your head! We can't leave you. We're with you until you die, heheheh..."_

"_Yeah, what you gonna do about it, Violette? Just get rid of us? How are you gonna do that, huh? Kill yourself?"_

"_That might be a good idea. After all, why would someone like you possibly win?'_

"_How could you win? You deserve this torment!"_

"_Kill herself? She'd kill __**us**__ if she did that!"_

I fight back a scream as I shake my head to clear it.

Reaching for some water to take some painkilling tablets with, I hear the voices are getting louder, trying to slip me into conversation with them again, but I try to block them out with happy memories.

It doesn't work very well.

"_Look at Violette. All wounded and holed up in a tree!"_

"_Look at all those horrible injuries! The scars they'll leave and other effects? She'll never be beautiful again!"_

Tears start to escape my eyes as I squirm inside my worn out sleeping bag, the new blanket wrapped around me.

"_We're here to stay, Violette!"_

"_You can't escape us!"_

Finally, I manage to pass out from a combination of pain and fatigue, but even in my sleep; in my dreams, the voices speak to me again…

* * *

_**These Games end in the next chapter! Are you all excited? Review and let me know what you think will happen! I'd love it if everyone who has this on alert/favourites lets me know their thoughts!**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**The end of the Games, but not the end of the story! Who's excited? Read and let me know what you think in the end of this chapter!**_

* * *

My fitful sleep ends in the afternoon of the next day.

I wake up to see sunlight streaming down on me, but it's still pretty cold, with snow everywhere.

I am sore all over and hungry too, plus I didn't even bother to check what I got in my new pack. My new butterfly swords are tied to a nearby branch and I'm still wrapped up in my new blanket.

When I move to sit up, the pain in my most recent injuries flares up. My shoulder and side feel like they're on fire.

_Heheheheh._ Girl on Fire. That's Katniss' job…

Hampered by my injuries, I try to stretch out and look around my surroundings.

Like I said, there's still snow everywhere but luckily no more has fallen recently. I can't see the ground. Everything there is hidden.

Everyone else must be trying to recover from yesterday too. Everyone that was still alive when the feast was announced went to it.

I saw everyone there get injuries of varying degrees.

My injuries? Well, they're probably mid-range. Not little scratches, sure, but not life threatening.

At least I hope…

I lean over to another branch where I've stored my packs and reach for the newer one.

The first thing I see is a new first-aid kit, but it's smaller than the first one I had. It has a few bandages and some disinfectant, but that's it. If it can really be called much of a first-aid kit at all…

I find three whole apples, a large packet of raisins, a packet of pistachio nuts, more matches, a fresh sleeping bag, new gloves, a small jar of something like meat paste and two knives with long, serrated blades.

More food. Good. A new set of gloves. Good. Matches? I barely had any left. The other things will certainly be useful too. These knives really _are_ kinda pretty…

I touch the tip of one blade and giggle. I'm turning into a knife nut, aren't I?

I laugh again. Or maybe just a nut…

I no longer have my archery set and I also lost the grappling hook and rope. Here's hoping I won't have to scale any more mountains…

For my only meal that day, I take some of the meat paste and put it on one of my leftover dinner rolls. The roll is getting kind of stale, but it tastes like the closest thing to heaven I can get on here.

"_Heaven? What heaven? This is hell on earth!" _I think.

Shaking my head to dispel any voices wanting to talk to me, I pop in six raisins, two sugar cubes and carefully sip some water.

As night falls, I realise I heard no canon booms today. Could it be perhaps I slept through them? It certainly is plausible. After all, didn't Katniss sleep through multiple days?

Wait, did _I_ sleep through multiple days? I don't think so- I mean, I'd feel stiffer than I already do if I had, surely…

But how would I know that?

Shaking my head again, I wipe my good eye, trying to see the sky better.

Hm. From what it says, there were no fatalities today. Can't say how good it is for me. I lost track of time and I really have no idea what it is or who might have died from when I passed out to when I woke up…

* * *

The next day, I wake up mid-afternoon again when the sound of a canon goes off.

A few minutes later, another canon blast goes off.

Hm. Two in a row. I wonder who caused them and who's still alive now…

I try stretching again, but I feel stiffer than a board.

Looking out into the distance, I see a body being lifted into the distance and I see a glint of blond hair.

Hm. None of us girls left have that colour hair so it must be one of the boys…

But which one of them is it? District 1 or District 2? I might have seen the hair, but they were too far away for me to see their body type. District 1 was tall and lean, while District 2 was shorter and stockier, close in build to the District 4 boy…

The fact that I'm close enough to see the body being lifted up into the air though probably means that their killer is nearby so even though I'm feeling stiff and want to stretch, I daren't move from my spot.

Two more people down.

On my last count, there were only five of us left. How many of us are there still alive? Three? Two? I honestly have no clue…

For dinner, I finish off my rolls with a little meat paste, finish the apple slices I had since the start of the Games, eat a handful of raisins mixed with pistachio nuts and take more sips of water than I usually do. I hope I get out of here quickly enough to not regret that.

Hm… It's also the most I've been able to eat in here without either trying to conserve or feeling nauseous. Perhaps I'm healing up enough for another battle or two to the end!

When night comes, I see that both the District 1 and 2 boys are gone. Two more Careers gone.

Depending on how things went when I was out, there are still three more people standing in these Games including me. If none of the other two girls died, that means that the top three Tributes this year are Titania, Kalei and I. Districts 2, 11 and my District of 9.

_Whoa. _

Who knew I'd make it this far? Imagine that.

Me. A girl who used to sit at home drawing Hunger Games fanart and writing Hunger Games fanfiction. Me. A cheerleader who also danced in her free time. Who always loved to hang out with her friends in the mall and make fun of ugly people…

Who knew that a girl like that could make it to the top three of the Hunger Games? Surviving fights, killing people, dealing with illness, injury and hunger without the proper treatments? Who would have expected that of me?

Certainly not Claudette or Dominique…

See bitches? See how far I made it? I would die in the Bloodbath huh?

Well, you see me up in this tree? I might be injured, I might have been ill; I might not look as beautiful as I was before you bitches got to me, but _I'M STILL HERE! _

I might have to face Titania still. Somehow, I don't think she's dead. Kalei might be, I'm not sure, but for some reason, I do not think Titania is dead. I don't know why. It's just a really eerie feeling…

And even if I end up having to face Kalei in the end, she could kill me too. She didn't get a nine for nothing. She's probably the one who killed Mason, Titania's District partner. I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that was the case when I get out of here.

_If_ I get out of here…

And if that is the case, I'm going to try and get as much rest as I can. Possibly facing two lethal people with higher training scores than me who have survived this long in the Games is certainly going to take a lot of energy…

"_Don't get your hopes up, Violette. You'll be dead by morning!"_

"_And if you're not, Titania or Kalei will take care of that for you!"_

The voices in my head snicker.

"Cut it out guys. Stop laughing at me. I can still win this thing. Violette Gardner can still win this thing!" I say.

"_Sure you can... You have about as much chance winning this game as Edward stopping his sparkling!"_

"Quit it, I said! If I made it this far, I can win!" I clutch my head, trying to shake out the sounds of laughter.

"I need to get some sleep now. I will need all my energy for the big finale, won't I?" I grin.

Gotta look confident. I can't show any more weakness in here…

* * *

_WHAM!_

"OUCH! What the hell?!" I wake up suddenly when I feel something hard hit me in the stomach.

It hits me again in the head and again in the bad leg, just above my ankle.

"What the hell? What is this thing? What's going on?!"

I look up and my eyes widen as I roll over the side of the branch, narrowly missing getting hit by a giant chunk of ice.

Is that… _hail_ they sent?

"OW, OW, OW, OW, OW! _DAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMIT!_" I try covering my head with my arms, but it's futile.

Instead, I reach for my supplies all around me in the tree and stuff them together as quickly as I can.

As I'm climbing down the tree, a large chunk of hail hits my hand, making me lose my grip and I tumble down the rest of the way, falling with an abrupt thud.

I let loose a stream of curses as I get up and scramble blindly, trying to find somewhere to shelter from the evil hail.

"OW, OW, OW, OW, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!" I feel the strap of my old backpack loosening and I catch hold of it to keep it from dropping.

The pounding of all this hail is starting to give me a headache.

Finally, at long last, I find somewhere to shelter and catch my breath.

A nice cave.

Once I do, I finish the meat paste, jerky, crackers, raisins and pop a few pistachio nuts in as well, drinking a little water afterwards.

The hail soon mixes with snow and I can't even see outside anymore. It's all a mixture of white and grey out there.

I hear cracks and snaps as the snow and hail piles up on everything outside.

There's some wood in the cave so I light it.

"Fire. Nice, sweet, _warm_ fire…" I sighed happily as the warmth hit me.

Shuddering as the heat rolls through me, I glance out at the snow and hail which is not letting up.

About two hours later, the barrage has finally stopped.

When I finally climb out of the snow, I see that the snow and hail has pretty much destroyed all the trees and shrubbery around.

Chunks of ice are sticking out from the snow-covered ground and I have to watch my step to make sure that I don't slip and fall over them.

Reaching around into my backpack, I pull out the two serrated knives and stick them into free slots on my weapons belt.

I shift my butterfly swords to one hand and reach into my backpack for the last of the sugar cubes and an apple.

Sometimes I eat when I'm nervous and right now I'm the epitome of nervousness.

Between crunches of apple and sugar cubes, I listen carefully for any sign of approaching animal or person, but it doesn't come.

I would have probably said they all died and I'd won, but if Titania and Kalei had died, surely I would have been proclaimed the winner and collected by the hovercraft already.

Therefore, that's not the case here. They're still lurking around somewhere. Whether hidden away somewhere, waiting to die from injuries or illness or waiting to fight, they're still very much alive.

Like me.

_I'm still here._ I'm still in the count.

I wonder what everyone outside this arena must be thinking. Surely Dominique is reporting back to Claudette, keeping her updated on my suffering. That's probably a given.

What about my District 9 family? My mother Lydie, father Alexander and my brother Louis. What are they all thinking now?

Maybe they're cheering for me right now. Maybe they're willing me to return to them. Maybe they're not getting their hopes up because after all, the odds are _very_ unpredictable in these Games.

Remember Rohan, the high scoring Tribute from District 7? He might have done well in training, but it certainly didn't help _his_ odds of surviving in the end…

I would have never thought my odds of winning this good. Never.

A shiver runs down my spine. Will the odds be in my favour in this final showdown?

Oh, and what about Graham's family? I know I reached him too late to help him escape that gruesome death (excuse me, turning green at the memory!), but I hope they are doing okay. If I get back to District 9, I'm going to do what I can to help his family. It's the least I can do after all…

I'm so absorbed in thought, I barely notice that I've reached the lake that I killed the District 7 girl next to and washed off in a few times.

It's completely frozen over now. No chance whatsoever of getting any water from that. I'm not even sure I could get through that with a heavy-duty drill…

The next thing I know, there are two figures sliding right over the ice on their asses and straight into the middle of the lake.

I immediately retreat, hiding behind some rocks some distance off to watch. After all, I'm going to have to kill whoever survives this fight to get out of here…

Titania and Kalei got up and are now battling one another viciously, cursing up a storm as they do.

If it weren't for the weapons, I'd just think this was a major catfight…

Kalei swings her scimitar at Titania's neck but misses.

Titania stabs at Kalei's chest with her broad sword but narrowly misses as Kalei does a sort of pirouette to avoid it.

Neither of them can manage to get in a blow, no matter how well they try.

They keep swinging and dodging. Wow, this fight is going into stalemate territory fast…

Then I notice something.

_Crack, crack, crack._

The ice below their feet…

_Crack, crack, crack._

It's starting to crack and they don't seem to notice…

_Crack, crack,_ _CR-ACK!_

The ice breaks open and both of them fall in, screaming out, startled.

The ice around them cracks even more and the space they're in gets larger as the lake opens up, leaving water and chunks of ice all over.

Once they've regained their bearings, they actually start fighting again in the water as they try to get out.

Minutes later, they're out on the farther side of the lake, climbing onto the shore, where they resume the fight.

Determined women, aren't they?

I move around the sides of the lake hiding in what's left of the bushes, rocks and trees to watch what will happen now.

Titania raises a knife and throws it…

Kalei twirls and slashes with her sword…

BOOM!

Titania's knife impales Kalei's eye at the moment at the moment Kalei stabs Titania in the stomach.

And so ends the life of Kalei, the female Tribute of District 11 in the 73rd Annual Hunger Games…

A brave, skilled warrior, who managed to hold her own in this arena, who managed to kill a Career who had a higher score than her- who just happened to be Titania's District partner…

Titania wrenches out Kalei's sword from her stomach, while holding a hand to the wound to try and staunch the blood flow.

She staggers over to Kalei's body and drags out the knife.

As she does, she looks up, and my blue eyes make four with her brown ones.

_Shit. _

She stands up and snarls at me.

_Shit._ Here she comes…

I take off through the ruined wintery landscape as fast as I can go.

Looking behind me, I notice that for someone who just got stabbed in the stomach, she's moving surprisingly fast.

I wonder if they teach the Careers not only how to handle weapons, but to have high pain tolerance as well…

"Come on, Violette! Keep running! Don't let Titania catch you or District 2 will have another Victor for sure!" I encourage myself aloud.

"YOU BET THEY WILL!" Titania yells.

Oh. She heard me.

Wait, she's close enough to hear me?

_RUN FASTER!_

_FAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSTTTTTT TTEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR R!_

I bite back the urge to scream in a mixture of frustration and terror as I come up against a giant mountain that completely blocks off my escape. It's too wide to run around and it's not like it's just some little slope that I can be up and over in a few minutes.

I have no choice.

It looks like the final showdown will be on this mountain…

"YOU'D BETTER RUN, DISTRICT 9! I'M COMING TO GET YOU!" I hear her voice yelling in the distance.

That's all the motivation I need to scramble up the mountain.

The voices in my head try to have a conversation with me again, but I block them out. No way in hell am I letting them make me lose this thing!

I'm about halfway up by the time Titania reaches the base and I've paused on a ledge, eating my last apple.

Yeah, I know. Not the best time to be eating, but if I die here, I want the last thing I've eaten to be something nice…

I throw the apple core down the side of the mountain to taunt Titania, but she swats it aside and continues her ascent, at which I continue mine.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY FROM ME, LITTLE FLOWER?!" She shouts up.

"I DID BEFORE, DIDN'T I?" I shout back, increasing my speed.

I finally reach the peak of the mountain where there's a narrow ledge and get out my butterfly swords and finger my remaining knives nervously.

She'll be up here soon.

Nothing I can do to stop her.

Titania will be up here soon…

There aren't even any rocks or chunks of ice up here to throw down at her to slow her down- or better yet, make her lose her grip…

The audiences all over Panem must be watching this eagerly.

Here we are, the final two Tributes in the 73rd Hunger Games, getting closer and closer to the final fight.

A Career and a non-Career. I can guess who the bets are on, but I'm determined to make those betters lose a whole lot of money when I win…

I clutch the pendant of my District token nervously. Can't let the nerves overcome you now, Violette. You're _so close_ to getting out of here…

I remember the note that Melissa passed me from both her and Gina on the morning I entered the arena.

"_We hope the odds are ever in your favour, Violette. Good luck."_

Let's hope the odds are in my favour against Titania…

I remember Ceres' encouragement the night before I went in and the hug she gave me.

"_You know, it would be nice to have some female company in the Victor's Village so make sure you come back alive, okay?"_

"You ready to die, District 9?" I hear Titania's voice nearby and I stand up, the adrenaline flowing through my veins.

I'm ready for a fight. And Ceres, I _will_ come back to our District alive.

I tighten my grip on my swords as Titania finally makes it up, grinning at me, her tangled black hair flapping about the breeze, completely drenched in the icy water of the lake, looking completely deranged.

"I'm ready to go back to District 9 alive, actually…" I say coolly.

Titania cricks her neck. "Too bad that's not going to happen, pretty flower."

And with that, she charges.

I side-step and she stabs the sword into the side of the mountain so hard, it becomes stuck there and she snarls in frustration.

"Wow, District 2. All that snarling. Are you a wild animal now?" I ask calmly as she turns back around, breathing heavily and clutching another sword she's got in her hand, holding her other hand to the stab wound Kalei gave her earlier.

"You know what wounded animals are like, don't you? _Vicious._"

With that, she screams and stabs at me again.

I dodge again.

"Nowhere to run to now, District 9. Nowhere to hide. And this time, there's no ice and snow to shove into my face…" She moves a few strands of stringy hair out of her face, breathing even heavier than before.

Hm. She might be getting weaker, but she's still got fight in her…

She throws a knife and it lands in my stomach.

I crumple to the ground, seeing stars in my eyes and screaming in pain.

This, this is just too much. On top of everything else…

"_See that, Violette! We told you that you couldn't win!"_ The voices in my head chorus.

"See that, District 9? You can't win. I'm too big and too powerful…" She walks over to me as I try to remove her knife from my stomach and throw it over the side of the mountain.

As she hangs over me with a rather large knife, she smiles.

"Now I'm going to kill you and go home as District 2's next Victor…"

"_Remember that we all love you, okay? Don't just fight for us, fight for District 9!" _My mother's voice rings through my head as I start to feel like both the mountain and the girl hovering above me with the pointy thing are spinning…

"Any last words? Any final goodbyes to your pathetic little grain district?" She grins, holding the knife above my chest, directly above my heart.

As I look into Titania's eyes, I imagine that those eyes flicker between colours. They change from her dark brown to Dominique's lighter brown to Claudette's blue-green.

That's all the motivation I need.

Before she can react, I reach to my belt for one of my pretty serrated knives that I got at the Feast.

"_Yeah._ I'll see you in a few days, guys!"

With that, I jab the knife directly into Titania's pupil and shove her away from me, standing up quickly and backing away from her tumbling around.

"AAH! MY EYE! WHY YOU LITTLE!"

She tries to go towards me, but I move quickly, stabbing her straight through the chest with one of my swords, kicking her in the stomach directly into her wound there and sending her flying right off the side of the ledge.

BOOM!

I sink to my knees, laughing loudly and crazily in some sort of relief as I realize… _I've won._

_I've actually won…_

The trumpets blare once again and I hear Claudius Templesmith's excited voice.

"_**Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the Victor of the Seventy-third Hunger Games, Violette Gardener of DISTRICT 9!"**_

The roar of the Capitol citizens that they're playing live over the speakers is almost deafening and I fall to my knees, clutching my bleeding stomach, _laughing._

I barely even have enough strength to grab onto the ladder from the hovercraft which materializes overhead. Good thing it has that electric current that freezes you to it or I'd have fallen off for sure…

As soon as I'm inside the hovercraft, a crowd of doctors whisk me away to tend to my injuries, sticking all sorts of needles and tubes in me.

One of them places an oxygen mask over my face and before I pass out, I smile, thinking about how I actually managed to survive and keep my promises to my family and Ceres.

* * *

Well readers, that's it of the 73rd Hunger Games! What did you all think of it? How did I do? Review and let me know! Come on, you know you want to! I'd really like the input as I'd like to write about the actual canon characters when this story is done...


	11. Chapter 11

When I wake up, I hear a steady drip, dripping noise.

The only noise in the sterile, all white room I'm in. No windows, no doors. It smells like a hospital in here.

Groggily, I look towards the sound of the dripping and barely register that it's some sort of IV, continually feeding medicine into my arm, into my system.

And it's not the only one.

Both my arms have several tubes attached, with several cocktails of drugs and nutrients being pumped into my body.

I also feel the oxygen mask on my face, feeding me with a strange smelling gas.

_Hospital._ I must be in some sort of hospital room.

I shudder at the thought. I hate hospitals. Always have. Ever since I had to go into one to get my appendix removed when I was twelve.

I try to move myself into a sitting position, but I find I cannot move. I'm being held in place by some sort of restraint.

I start to panic. I can feel my heart racing. I don't want to be here anymore. Let me out of here! I don't want these needles in my arm!

Suddenly, a portion of the wall slides open and someone in a white coat comes in.

"You're awake. Good. We were wondering when you'd come to. You've healed well in the past few days…"

Few days? I've been unconscious for _a few days?_

"You were pretty badly injured. I'm surprised you didn't feel it more in the arena. The adrenaline must have kept you running, but once we had you here, it hit you all at once and we had to operate on you immediately…"

Who I assume to be some doctor person removes the oxygen mask, some of the tubes and needles and removes the restraints, allowing me to sit up.

The person's words blur together as I start to fade in and out of consciousness.

"…_you'll be ready for presentation in another day… eyesight fixed… ankle healed… scars…"_

The words all blend together, like someone's mixing fruit punch and throwing all the different fruit juices together. They merge together to form one, dark red sort of colour.

_Blood. _

I'm seeing blood.

A river of blood is in front of my eyes, blocking my way. It stretches on for miles and miles.

All I can see is blood. It's everywhere.

Then the screams. I hear screams coming from the river as it ripples.

I try to step back, but the river of blood overflows and pools around my knees.

The blood rises in several pillars from the river and forms into the zombiefied bodies of all the dead Tributes.

The ones I killed and Graham are at the front of the pack, chasing me down.

They reach me, piling on top of me. I can't breathe, I can't see. All I hear are their screams and moans of pain…

I wake up with a jolt, sitting up suddenly, and breaking into a cold sweat.

"_Just a dream, Violette. It was all just a dream…"_ I reassure myself. _"The zombies aren't coming to get you…"_

The wall slides open again and this time, it's Gina bringing me a tray of food.

She smiles at me weakly as she props me up and fluffs my pillows. Gently, she sets the tray on my lap.

"How long was I unconscious for? How many days?" I try to say, but it comes out in a scratchy sort of voice that doesn't sound like my own. It sounds as if I've been moving my lips, but someone else spoke the words.

She seems to understand me however, as she holds up three fingers.

Three days? I've been out for three whole days?!

Oh my god.

Gina must have sensed my discomfort as she pats my shoulder and smiles at me reassuringly.

I glance down at the tray. The same meal I can remember reading that Katniss had. A bowl of clear broth, a small serving of applesauce, and a glass of water.

It might not seem like much, but Katniss is certainly right. After going through all of that, I can barely manage to hold it all down.

My stomach is filled by the time I reach the applesauce and it takes quite the effort to finish it.

I drift off to sleep again and my dreams are filled with nothing but screams, moans and blood. Nothing but gore. All those days in the Arena are finally starting to sink in.

I killed five people. _Five._ I know for sure now because I heard the doctor person mention something about it, even in my drugged-up state.

I am a murderer. I am a Victor. Both words mean the same thing.

_Murderer._

I killed five people. I know I had to do it in order to live, but five young people lost their lives at my hands. They would have had families, friends, perhaps significant others to go home to.

And I stopped that from happening…

The tears flow freely down my cheeks and sobs rattle my chest. How could I have let myself become so cruel?

I don't care. I don't even care about the bitches Claudette and Dominique anymore.

I should have just let them won. Let someone else win these Games. Let Titania kill me right there on that mountain. How can I possibly live with the guilt of what I have done forever on my conscious whether or not I ever get back to Montreal?

The door slides open again and in comes the doctor.

"Violette?" The doctor says softly. "It's time for you to meet your team again…"

I nod and move slowly, inching myself carefully out of bed, taking great care not to put too much pressure on myself after getting up so soon from a state of extended immobility.

Slipping on the clothes left for me near the edge of the bed, I step in front of the section of the wall that I saw Gina and the doctor come through and it opens for me.

The doctor is waiting outside for me.

"I have been instructed to take you to them." She says, smiling what she must feel is an encouraging smile but only reminds me of a hyena.

Ceres, Desdemona and… _Dominique/Medusa_ are all waiting for me in a large room at the end of the hall.

My mentor immediately moves forward and gives me a gentle hug.

"Congratulations, Violette. You did well and I am so,_ so_ proud of you. I promise to come visit you in the Victor's Village if you'll do the same for me."

"After getting your help, how could I not?" I smile back weakly.

Desdemona is crying so many happy tears that she has to go get a box of tissue to wipe them all away, lest they ruin her hideous makeup.

Before I can react, Medusa hugs me as well; making my eyes go wide and my body immediately feels as if it's back in Hunger Games mode, filling up with adrenaline.

"_So, you actually won, I see…"_ She whispers.

"_Yes, yes I did. I bet you didn't think I was capable, did you?"_ I whisper back viciously.

"_Yes, well, no matter. I did say to you before you left that it doesn't matter what happens to you. You would still suffer whether or not you had won. I enjoy your victory as much as I would enjoy your death."_

With that, I break apart the hug abruptly and glare at her.

"Come now, Violette. Desdemona has to go dress you up now." Ceres says as Desdemona steps forward.

* * *

She leads me to an elevator which takes us to the lobby of the Training Centre. As we zoom upwards in the elevator towards the District 9 floor, I shudder when I remember that just a few weeks ago, there were living, breathing, _feeling _Tributes occupying these floors.

And I am the only one still alive. It's an eerie feeling.

Now the building is way too quiet. It rings with a sort of deafening silence. Not a peaceful silence, but the one you cannot stand.

I barely even notice as the elevator stops on the ninth floor and Desdemona leads me out.

I feel hollow inside. This hollow feeling feels terrible. I feel as if I would rather be dead than have this feeling.

You can't really understand it until you have experienced it. It's just one of those things…

As my prep team takes me into the dining room, chattering excitedly about their favourite moments in the Games, their voices are not the ones I hear.

"_Well, what do you know? Violette survived…"_

"_There's a surprise…"_

Their laughter coincides with my prep team's laughter.

"Oh Violette, I absolutely thought my heart would stop when you were fighting that District 5 boy!"

"The Feast had to be one of the most exciting moments. You barely got away from that Career girl!"

"_Yeah, you got away through sheer dumb luck, Violette. If she hadn't played around with you, you'd be dead and she'd be here in your place!"_

I clutch the sides of my head, trying to shake off the voices and the waves of nausea threatening to consume me.

As I eat, I just go through the motions. I can't even fully see or taste what I am eating. All I can feel are the motions of the fork bringing food to my mouth.

Afterwards, the prep team chatters even more as they clean me up for presentation.

My makeup is light, almost natural and they cut my hair to shoulder length, curling it tightly and leaving curly bangs in the front, which just brush my eyebrows.

Desdemona carries in a pretty, pastel pink halter-top sleeveless knee-length dress with a lilac neck, hem and a lilac bow tied to the left side.

She slips it on and finishes it off by putting a lilac headband with little pink flowers on a side in my hair and slipping low-heeled lilac shoes onto my feet.

"I've had this design in mind for years and never got to use it. I'm glad I got to use it on you though. It looks lovely on you…" She says as she commands me to twirl around in it.

"Thanks, Desdemona. It really does look nice…" I smile weakly.

But what does it matter? I may look cute, but I'm still a murderer…

A wolf in sheep's clothing can still be recognized.

* * *

I find myself in an area they tell me is directly beneath the stage. They tell me that we will all rise above to the stage. First my prep team, then the escort aka Medusa, my stylist Desdemona, the mentor- Ceres, and finally the victor/murderer.

_Me._

Then they leave me all alone to get ready for their own ascensions.

I'm all alone, in the dark. There's barely any light of which to speak. I never did like the dark…

I can hear the distant noise of the crowd way above me, but I don't really pay it much mind, trapped within my own thoughts.

A Capitol attendant leads me over to a metal plate, quite like the one I rose into the arena on.

Just a few minutes later, I hear the applause above start. My prep team, revelling in all their glory. Then Medusa, the one who helped put me here in the first place- though they don't know that obviously…

Desdemona gets a nice round of applause.

Then Ceres is introduced. Of course her applause is the loudest of those introduced so far.

All too soon, I feel my metal plate start to move.

My turn to shine in the spotlight.

The spotlight is too bright and I close my eyes for a few seconds to adjust to the light as the deafening applause rings through my ears.

Ceres comes over, beaming as she leads me over to the Victor's chair, a beautiful ornate chair that more resembles a throne than anything else.

Caesar tells a few jokes and makes a few comments to warm up the audience and then the show begins.

The lights dim and the seal of Panem appears on the screen.

I'm about to watch my own Games.

The pre-arena events. My Reaping. When I shook hands with Graham. My arrival in the Capitol. The chariot ride. My training score. My interview with Caesar.

Seeing the other Tributes alive in this makes me feel sick to my stomach and I have to fight back the nausea. There's that upbeat track that Katniss says is there in hers. It's in mine too and it really does make everything worse. A lively track playing as it displays people who are now dead…

Now they get to the real highlights of the show. My time in the arena.

I don't want to see this. I really would prefer not to see this. I would just like to run and hide somewhere and forget about this.

Sadly, that's not an option, so I stay rooted to my seat, fighting back tears, the waves of nausea and the general anxiety threatening to consume me.

Me rising into the arena. Waiting for the Games to start as the countdown went on. The moment I stepped off that pedestal.

Killing the boys of Districts 3, 11 and 5. Me eluding the Careers the first time as I led them to the District 6 girl. The earthquake. Me finding Graham being munched on like a cracker in the jaws of the bear. All the tumbling about that I did. Hiding in the trees from the girls of Districts 1 and 4. The acid-blooded coyote. Killing the District 7 girl.

A death which seems particularly horrible to me. I could have killed her quickly, but I didn't. I drew it out. I'm just as bad as those Careers who like to torture people before they actually kill them…

The Feast. Me and Titania's first fight. I stabbed her in the arm. She stabbed me around the stomach.

We both escape alive, to fight another day.

A few more uninteresting moments until the day of the finale. The hail which sent me scarpering from my tree.

Running around, looking for shelter from the hail. Being in the cave for a while.

Watching Titania and Kalei's fight.

Watching as Titania wins that fight and chases me.

Our banter as we run and climb up the mountain.

Our fight once we reach the top.

I can remember everything I was thinking as I was there. Thoughts racing through my mind, thinking that I would probably die…

The death blow I gave Titania.

Me winning, sinking to the ground clutching my bleeding self, laughing…

Being carried away by the hovercraft…

All those horrid memories…

I catch a glimpse of myself on camera and my face looks completely blank- devoid of any emotion, despite the raging storm inside threatening to consume me.

The anthem plays and I rise from my seat slowly with the others as the foul President Snow joins us on stage, followed by a little boy in a suit, carrying the Victor's crown on a cushion.

His eyes are as dark as coals as they stare into mine and I feel as if his soul is the same way- if he really has one. He smiles at me, but his smile doesn't fully reach his eyes.

I resist the urge to shudder.

Going through the motions of bowing and cheering and laughing.

Caesar finally bids the audience goodnight and reminds them about the final interviews.

Then we're whisked away to President Evil's mansion for the Victory Banquet.

I don't eat much. Even if I had a moderate amount of time to myself, I still wouldn't have eaten much. My sponsors are shoving each other out of the way to meet me, Capitol officials shake my hands so much, I feel as if they'll fall off; the bright lights of the constantly flashing cameras almost blind me.

* * *

Finally I'm back in the Training Centre and all I want to do is sink into bed for the night.

My dreams are constantly filled with screams, crying, pleads and rivers of blood. Nothing else at first. Then they're joined by Ginger, Gina and Melissa all suffering here in their own ways.

Ginger, back in District 9, anxiously awaiting my return, along with my District 9 family.

Gina and Melissa as Avoxes. I imagine them being tortured, having their tongues cut out, choking on their own blood…

When I wake up, I am in a cold sweat and have a feeling of general nausea and I take off to the bathroom to throw up.

An hour later, Gina and Melissa come in and give me a group hug, before fixing up the room again and quickly leaving as Medusa descends upon me reminding me about my final interview.

I get to eat a small breakfast of toast, jam, sausage and cinnamon-flavoured milk before my prep team arrives.

The next dress Desdemona arrives to put me in is a light blue flowing-sleeved ankle-length dress with tiny purple flowers along the hem and around the deep-cut collar. Natural makeup once again. Silver droplet earrings. Silver shoes. My District token, looking all shiny and new now.

Then I'm led down the hall to a sitting room where Caesar Flickerman awaits, smiling at me. He even gets up to shake my hand.

Someone counts down and soon enough, the two of us are being broadcast live to all of Panem.

"Congratulations on your win, Violette. Tell me, how do feel now that you've had the honour of becoming a Victor?" He asks.

"Well, it's still kind of a shock. I don't think it's really settled in yet." I chuckle nervously. "I can barely believe that I'm here!"

"Ain't that the truth?" He chuckles.

He'll never know how true that is…

"How did you feel when you were Reaped? What were your family and friends like when they came to see you?"

"I didn't really know _how_ to feel when I was Reaped. But when my family and friends came in to see me, they made me promise to not give in. To fight back. To win. To come back home to them…" I fiddle with my District token.

"And that you did." Caesar smiled.

Ceres stands in a corner, barely seen, but I can see her giving me a thumbs-up. Encouraging me.

Then the hardest question I've ever been asked:

"How did you feel when you finally realized that you'd won? Right there on top of that mountain?"

"I… I felt really relieved, actually. I finally knew that I'd get to go home for sure…"

That's the answer I give him, anyway.

A few more little comments and then Caesar signs off.

Once he does, Ceres zooms forward to hug me.

"You did very well in that interview. Now, it's time to get ready to go back home…" She tells me.

I nod, and head back to my room.

Home. Your home rather, not mine…

Getting dressed in simpler clothes, Gina and Melissa escort me down to the lobby where they shake my hands firmly, smiling weakly and I reflect their smiles.

In a blur, I am guided through the Capitol in a car with blackened windows and we quickly arrive at the train station.

I have a little time to say goodbye to Desdemona as bitch face hurries me onto the train and then we're all back on our way to District 9.

I see Dagan again for the first time since the night before the Games started and he acknowledges me with a nod before disappearing into his own quarters.

Heading for my own quarters, I stay there for as much time as possible during the ride back to District 9.

When I hear the door open and I look up to see who is there, I immediately go tense.

Dominique, in normal form.

"I know I have said zis before, but who knew a girl like you could have become a Hunger Games Victor?"

"_Indeed. _Why the hell are you here now? Come to taunt me some more?"

"Ah, as much as I enjoy doing that, no. Not zis time."

I blink in surprise.

"You 'ave been een Panem for a long while. I 'ave been able to jump between 'ere and the real world a few times. Who knew zey would miss you so? Television, posters, radio bulletins, _Internet…_ For you as well as your leetle amies…"

"So? Of course they would! Our families and friends love us!" I exclaim.

"Sure zey do. You want to get back home to zem, you weel 'ave to find your own way home. I will not 'elp you."

I stand up angrily. "I thought you said you weren't coming to taunt me!"

Dominique grinned.

"_I lied."_ She reverts to Medusa form before slamming the door behind her.

* * *

_**I will be putting this story on temporary hiatus for now as I want to make progress with my other fics, possibly including a Danny Phantom/Hunger Games crossover. And if you like Harry Potter, please take a look at my profile, check out those stories and vote on the poll!**_


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